Ghold - Galactic Hiss

The second release from new label Baitin' the Trap Records is a three track EP from London's Ghold, entitled Galactic Hiss.
Don't le the fact that there's only three songs on here kid you, it checks in at a mammoth twenty-odd minutes, the duo (I seem to be receiving a lot of work from duos recently. I like it.) laying down some frankly frightening work in the bottom end heavy sludge camp, drenched in feedback and dripping in atmosphere, like an even more stripped-down Tree of Sores or an impromptu Neurosis practice jam, and with some biker space rock sensibilities thrown in for good measure.

Vocals put me in mind of early nineties UK death/doom which gives them that kind of tortured, windswept feel, in fact, the whole opening track This Suffering Must End puts me in mind of that whole early nineties Northern English Doom, but caked in a grime that those acts most certainly didn't have, dragging itself out, and dragging itself inside out, long enough to become trance-like in its droning.
There's some quite unusual arrangement and production; pushing the vocals into an almost supporting role at times behind thick basslines and off-kilter drumming, before the vocals come back to the fore.
Most unsettling.
Any notion that you might have that they are some form of doom shoegazers is blown clear out of the window with the rollicking Elvira - a storming five minutes of total space rock and excellent drumming with almost chanted vocals.  The space communion continues with the closing track Grievous Practitioner - like a cross between Eyehategod and Hawkwind.  Utter biker filth - I love it.

The EP is up for pre order on Baitin' the Trap Records from October the 1^st and goes on sale on October 28^th.
Ghold are definitely a name that I'll be keeping an eye on, and if all BTTR's releases are going to continue in this vein, then I'll be keeping my other eye on them!
(and I think that cover art is something else!)

Baitin’ The Trap Records -
baitingthetraprecords@gmail.com 
www.facebook.com/baitinthetraprecords 
www.baitinthetraprecords.bandcamp.com 
www.twitter.com/baitinthetrap

Ghold - gholdband@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/gholdband
www.ghold.bandcamp.com 
www.gholdband.tumblr.com

Wraiths - 2012 EP

Yeah I slept on it.
But It's here now.

Hailing from North East England, when a band has a logo like that and has song titles like Church Burner, they better be good, and they don't disappoint, although they might not be what you'd immediately expect. Their 2012 EP has been given a 2013 release by Witch Hunter Records, 

five tracks of metallic hardcore, true crossover, with churning guitars and hectic vocals.

Each song pummels you into submission, just when you think you are getting a handle on it, it will twist off into some other direction leaving you chasing after it.

Wraiths obviously have a lot of disparate influences, all of which come together in a claustrophobic manner on this EP, yet are hard to separate and identify, as the band have forged their own identity.

Hardcore kids will love it, executing spinning roundhouses and flailing into each other, metal heads can headbang to it, you can all slam into each other using it as a soundtrack.

There is a definite negativity permeating the songs and the sound of the band - you can sense the antagonism building at the start of Hell Ride - flattening you into the ground so that when the quiet section comes in you are completely unprepared for it, but anticipating the mosh part that you know will follow.

Album closer Monolith is a seven minute plus Darkcore epic, travelling through different musical themes and tempos, but is a strangely cathartic experience, as is the whole EP, proof that there may yet be strength through negativity.

Grab yourself a tape, a download or a bundle NOW.

The Jeffrey Uppercut - Live Hard

When an EP starts off with a sample of Begbie from Trainspotting just after he's launched a pint glass off a balcony onto some lass's head, not only are getting a taster of what is about to come, you are shitting yourself before a note has even been played. So it is with Live Hard from The Jeffrey Uppercut.

 Like the ultimate crossover album that the Exploited always wanted to make but were too busy being a cartoon parody of themselves, Live Hard rattles your speakers with some street level, hardfaced raw punk rock.
 The ferocity of the songs is staggering, straight on from the speech from King Begbie, From Order to Disorder smashes right into you before slowing down to almost a crawl with double kicks and screeched vocals, before a squeal of feedback and a one two three four into Streetlights, which is streaming at the end of this review.
The title track is a one hundred second long beating with a boss shout-along at the end, and is followed up with Get the Fuck Out of My Way - together, surely three minutes of the toughest sounds that will be committed to disc this year.
Samples of bar room brawls and just honest to goodness scrapping permeate the chugging riffs and barked vocals, I bet their live gigs are an absolute riot!
The sheer anger at the end of Naive has to be heard to be believed, too. Rounding off with Cunt, a song that slowly builds into a hunchbacked, sneering monster; the lyrics only consist of three words, and the song only needs three words to make it's point.

 Live Hard was produced by Tom Dring (Dragged Into Sunlight, Corrupt Moral Altar, Iron Witch) and it gives this punkiness a sludgy, metallic edge. If you imagine all the violent punk that you can think of (all the Boston hardcore like SS Decontrol, Negative FX, Blood for Blood, also stuff like WBTD etc for starters) and give it a rougher English working class edge, then you have The Jeffrey Uppercut. The EP should be out in the next few weeks, until then get a load of these tracks:

 
Get over to their sites and check 'em out, they are also set to play the PDSA all dayer in Kirkdale, Liverpool soon (which is a great price for a good cause):
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheJeffreyUppercut
Bandcamp: http://thejeffreyuppercut.bandcamp.com/
twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffreyuppercut

XII Boar - Split Tongue, Cloven Hoof.

Every now and again, things slip under the radar; Obviously besides running this website we have hectic lives and so it came to pass that I was offered this for review before Xmas, missed it, and then found it, listened, and then got sidetracked before getting the review online.
Apologies from the bottom of my blackened heart.

XII Boar (that's pronounced 12 Bore, shotgun fans), come bursting out of the military town of Aldershot in England with a quite frankly storming four track EP here.

In a time when a lot of underground English Metal sees bands becoming ever more enshrouded in weed smoke, or writing ever more arcane and occult lyrics, it is a refreshing change to see bands like XII Boar (and countrymen Mage and Asomvel, for example) who hold no qualms about writing a tune or two for you to have a few beers with your mates and stamp your feet to, songs that you'll enjoy just as much blasting out of your stereo as you drive down the motorway in summer heading the festival of your choice.

There's a perfect balance struck between the old-sound and feel of uniquely British groups like early Almighty and the transatlantic swamp-groove of the mid nineties, all wrapped up in a Motörhead shirt and bullet belt, with a slight Southern-states feel, although they come across a lot more homegrown than any of that.
At times, they are reminiscent of Uprising-era Entombed, or even mid-career Cathedral, it's just a shame that there's only four tracks on offer here as I think a full length release must surely be imminent.

So, what do we have?
The first track, Smokin' Bones, rolls out of the speakers all studs and headbanging, like the aforementioned Asomvel do so well, Tommy Hardrock's vocals and guitar giving it the whole feeling of twenty regal and a few cans on payday before you head to the pool hall to meet the lads; sliding effortlessly into a mid paced singalong that reminds me of proper british rock/metal like early Wolfsbane, especially during the solo (check out David's drumming in the background during the solo).
When the three of them (rounded out by bassist Adam Bad-Dog) jam it out at the end, it's a total fist in the air moment, and we are only four minutes into the EP!
Hellspeed Viper (boss title) starts off frantically, and also has the whole mid-nineties groove thiing going on - I know I've only just said this about the previous track, but these lads must play together every night because they fit together like a jigsaw.
They slow down about five minutes into the track where you can hear Bad-Dog's bass a bit clearer, it's only when they slow down that I guess you'd really class them as being "stoner" in any sense of the world; I'm going to cringe if I ever see anyone describe them as such.
Moving into Slamhound,  another greasy mechanic of a track, it's lead breaks, rolling drums and headbangable basslines right through, overlaid with catchy sing-along stile lyrics.  I can't wait to see this band live.
The closing track, Triclops is the band's tour de force, Adam and Tommy taking a line each at the mic whilst the music chugs away behind them, this is their most doomy song on the EP, encompassing many moods and ands with another great solo and the band bashing it out to the finish.

I can't believe I let this slip under the radar, as I am under no illusion that it would have been in my best of 2012.  I love this, good time classic rock style British metal.

It seems to me that British Rock/Metal is about to be back at the position I've been waiting for siince the early-mid nineties, and groups like XII Boar, Mage, Orange Goblin, Asomvel, Arkham Witch, Age of Taurus, Ravens Creed and Black Magician are going to be up at the forefront of it, and it's a very exciting time.

You can find the band at:
XII Boar .com
and also at:
Bandcamp
Facebook
Twitter

DO IT!

Dashwood - S/T (2013)

You know how every so often, you come across a band that properly blow you away, and you're kicking yourself for not discovering them sooner? Imagine that happening, and really enjoying their stuff, and then just as you are about to do a belated review of their most recent release, you're given the chance to review their next one.
That's exactly what's happened to me with UK HC crew Dashwood.

What you have here on their new self-titled EP is five tracks of in-your-face hardcore.
No macho bullshit, crossover or anything like that, just good old style hardcore, with a feel of misanthropy running throughout.

When they slow down for the mosh parts, it's tight, get you moving stuff, with a great rhythm section locking together (if you need any further clues as to how well they execute this, the EP contains a flawless cover of SSD's Police Beat), but when they play fast...fucking hell, they career along at a breakneck speed with just as much ease, presenting plenty of bite to put them up amongst their peers in the UK hardcore scene which (for those of you visiting our site solely on metal content) is thriving and deserves your attention.

All in all, a tough, tight, solid EP that I can see myself coming back to again and again.

Coming soon, but for now you can check out their bandcamp page for said SSD cover and you can snag a digital download of their My Disobedience which pulled me in, and their debut EP Hurt/Heal for free there too.

bandcamp
facebook

Opium Lord - The Calendrical Cycle - Prologue:The Healer

Smashing the death decks this week, is the ornately titled The Calendrical Cycle - Prologue:The Healer EP from Opium Lord.

With an undoubted underground pedigree, this debut from the Black Country four peice who are turning heads already is an absolute belter; a mix of sounds and influences that makes them pretty hard to pigeonhole.
I keep getting bandnames on the tip of my tongue as I type this listening to the EP, "kind of like...." and then that little touchstone is gone and they are making me think of someone else, all the while forging their own sound.

Out via Thirty Days of Night in February, The EP contains two tracks, Heroin Swirl and  Street Labs, the former starting off slowly, with harsh vocals over the black morass of sound churning beneath, with a creeping, creepy middle section, that gives way to a bass heavy march with cymbals crashing all around, and a squeal of feedback as a palate cleanser before seguing into the second track, Street Labs, whirling headfirst at you with some nice post-metal touches and fierce dynamics to it.
Of course, it's as slow and heavy as you might expect, slightly psychedelic in some places, akin to the last Ilsa release.
It's up now for pre-order at £2.99 which is a steal.
Get on it.

Corrupt Moral Altar - Luciferian Deathcult

The first release on new label Baitin' The Trap Records is the Luciferian Deathcult EP from Corrupt Moral Altar.
As soon as you put it on, you are greeted with the words "I wanna get pissed for a reasonable price" and the band then force you head first into the track Play Stupid Games and Win Stupid Prizes.
It's an absolute maelstrom of a track, bringing sludge and grind up against each other to great effect.
Politics is a Bargain Between Beggars reminds me of mid nineties Napalm Death at times, maybe Napalm Death covering Black Flag, Adam's basslines easily as grinding as anything Shane Embury has laid down.
An absolutely searing vocal performance from vocalist Chris, bringing to mind the great Kev Sharp, contrasts with the doomy choir effect at the start of Power Whore, and I must bring attention to the drumming from Tom throughout the release, absolutely bang on which kind of balances out the whole sludge thing giving even the slower parts of the tracks a grind/core feel (Yes, I mean grind/core not grindcore).
The band describe the EP as being about "modern life, alcohol-fuelled regret, desperation and denial against a backdrop of a flawed and hopeless society" and that feeling of desperation really comes across when they intone "...you're slaves, don't you know?..." on Flattening the Cultural Pyramid, which is the standout track for me. Absolutely fucking crushing, John's riffs sounding absolutely huge at the end.
The EP ends with You Don't Have To Go To Clown College, which has a - dare I say it - bit of a groove to it, but will still melt your face off.
And then that's it, they're out, and they've taken all your cider with them.

The EP comes out on Feb 18th on Baitin' the Trap.
Links:
http://www.facebook.com/CorruptMoralAltar

www.facebook.com/baitinthetraprecords