X'ed Out - We All Do Wrong

 

X’ed Out play fast and hard but with a restraint that 

stops it being utter chaos. Tautly wound and intense, 

the songs deliver with style and atmosphere, the 

guitars judder and snake around the riffs - it’s 

a heavy mix but thankfully, the noise rock sensibilities 

mean that the band know that there is so much more 

than just screaming and playing fast. 

 

Straddling the void between noise/art/punk/hardcore, these 

songs are full of spastic rhythms, staccato time changes and sprawling 

passages that wind up as aggressive bursts of frustration. 

 

The rhythm section have the technical chops to pull off 

the dizzying time tempos and staccato song structures that 

make this sort of thing so thrilling but still have a looseness 

that sounds like a band playing on the edge of chaos. 

 

With a powerful production that really seems to capture a live 

sound, X’ed Out are full of aggression and drive, seemingly 

about to collapse into chaotic noise but the riffs and vocals keep 

the song structures going.

 

These are some longer tracks giving the guitars, bass

and horn sections room to evolve within their own

melodic passages.

 

Don't be fooled into thinking that this is backgound

music ...... play this loud and proud, let the whole

experience wash over you.

Jointhugger - Surrounded By Vultures

Using fuzzed out slow motion riffs, Jointhugger finish their

assault on 2021 with a treacle thick sound that swirls into

the atmosphere with feedback, sound effects and tunes that

were birthed in a swamp somewhere. With a lot of the songs clocking in 

at just over 9 minutes, Jointhugger use the track lengths to fully explore 

the dark/seedier side of 60's/70's psych with lashing of stoner rock 

that are laid upon a doom foundation and served up with extra creepiness.

This experience is not about being cowered into submission with
aggression or decibels but is more concerned with tones, colour,
a human touch or emotions. Vocals are a prayer that are offered
up in the vain chance that the dread and despair in life are eased
but from the wails and croons, you can know there will be no
help offered.

Fuzz drenches everything with it's sonic embrace, making these
distorted jams epic anthems which are dedicated to the higher
beings who dwell in the Church of Riffs.

These voodoo sex mantras have huge outbursts of slow, thick-
toned solos running through them with hex like properties making it
impossible not to nod out to them.

Take a dark, slow, sleazy trip into the minds of Jointhugger -
but beware - this cult will be very hard to escape from - and
would you want to?

Released on Majestic Mountain Records on 31st October

Fere - Visceral

There is a definite cinematic feel to proceeding which will be 

rewarded by playing as a whole, rather than individual tracks. 

Unusual soundscapes come to life where gentle guitars mix with

 blast beat drums and heavy riffs. 

The atmospherics are helped by 

moments of dreamlike calm but not not fear, slow echoed drums 

morph into aggressive driving beats from which the guitars 

can surge over the top, giving plenty of opportunities for feet stomping. 

In an over-saturated genre, it can be hard to make your mark 

but this band pull it off. Don't be fooled into thinking that this is 

background music ...... play this loud and proud, 

let the whole experience wash over you.

Released by Raging Planer Records on Nov 15th 2012

Iron Lizards - Hungry For Action

 

Like the bastard son of Zeke and Electric Frankenstein, 

Iron Lizards play a hugely addictive mix of garage punk rock’n’roll.

   

Machine gun solos are fired out from fuzz pedals set to kill over 

insanely catchy but primitive riffs. Hey droogies, bang your heads up 

and down to these killer tunes which make you want to break things, 

drink heavily or just shout in strangers faces about the new band 

you have just heard! Get hip to the new priests of boogie, smell the 

stench of amps turned up to 10 and worship at the altar of “fuck you!”. 

This is high on my album of the year list.

Junkbreed - Music For Cool Kids

 Junkbreed have found the intersection between ugliness and beauty.

The music throbs,  judders and face-melts
with noise rock and post hardcore intelligence and aggression.

The vocals are right up in the mix, giving

an impression of suffocation and trapped anguish that convey the

tension that is evident within the song structures. With a shit

hot rhythm section playing like tightly coiled springs, the

dynamics of the guitar are able to explode with fret-mangling

chords and spastic lead attacks.

Like a three way fuckathon between The Jesus Lizard, The Bad

Seeds and The Gun Club, the resulting offspring is grimy, seedy

and shot through with menace, bourbon and cheap drugs.

Restraint controlled with menace is a hard trick to pull off

but Junkbreed have done just that.

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Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster - The World Inside

 

Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster play post-rock arrangements but with 

the fire and aggression of sludge and post-metal.

                                They mix ambient soundscapes with loops and noise but never

forget to play as loud as they can when they want you to take notice. 

Echoed, picked guitar rings out in desolation, like a corpse

floating down a river before finally falling over a massive 

waterfall that drowns out all other sounds. 

The songs

avoid long drawn out passages, instead the constant ebb and

flow between loud and quiet quickly take the listener along

with mid paced tempos that brings anticipation to the next

part of the composition. 

 

There is a definite cinematic feel to proceedings which will

be rewarded by playing as a whole, rather than individual tracks.

 

Slow echoed drums morph into aggressive,

driving beats from which the guitars can surge over the top, giving

plenty of opportunities for feet stomping. 

 

In an over-saturated genre, it can be hard to make your mark

but these guys pull it off.

Mother Iron Horse - Under the Blood Red Moon

What do you do when you form a filthy Sludge band but the riffs

keep morphing into Doom dirges. And then the guitarists insist on

spraying distorted psych stoner solos over everything? 

 

Well, you call yourself Mother Iron Horse and produce 8 tracks of

brilliant sounding sonic denseness.

 

For me, this is the perfect mix of doom and sludge with some

outstanding guitar leads to make things have a really drugged out,

trippy but menacing vibe.

 

Instruments are down-tuned and brimming with enough distortion

to make your teeth start to shatter. Walls of sound are made deeper

by the tribal drumming that drives the songs along. Vocals are not

the tired "cookie monster" grunting but have an almost hardcore

intensity and passion.  

 

I cannot stop playing this - it has the epic majesty of doom but with

the anger and power of sludge - out on Ripple Music November 5th.

Kowloon Walled City - Piecework

 I have been waiting for this ever since "Grievances" in 2015- and even though I have only had it for a week, it is going straight into my albums of the year list.

Kowloon Walled City have carved out an impressive slab of hardcore/sludge/noise rock that is full of dirty, distorted tunes of disgust, regret and thoughtful anger. Feeling slightly less chaotic than past records, the band are not scared to strip away walls of noise to reveal passages of stark intensity which rely on vocals and picked guitar to set the scene before blasting out a barrage of atmospheric noise and aggression. 

 Great production has melded the instruments into a massive force that sounds unstoppable - if there is any justice in this shitty world, this is a body of work that stands out in an overcrowded genre and which other bands will be measured against. Highly fucking recommended.