Written by: The Administrator
After spending a long day trudging through a world that seems fully intent on chewing me up and spitting me out, the first thing I want to do is listen to a band that seems fully intent on chewing me up and spitting me out. No, literally, the very first thing. I get in my car, crank that angry spiteful music, and enjoy life for a little while. Enter Kingston-upon-Hull's Mastiff. Prime candidate for a wholeheartedly cathartic commute. Deprecipice, the band's fourth full length, marks a shift into more overt hardcore waters, allowing the grind, sludge, and deathier elements of their prior work to take more of a back seat. That's not to say, of course, that those qualities have dissipated--more that they have been more fully and organically incorporated into a (somehow) meaner and harder Mastiff sound. We can churn out descriptors all damn day. Deprecipice is seething, ugly, belligerent, harrowing, punishing, relentless, crushing, bleak, vengeful. There's an implicit curiosity that arises from the band's uniquely gnarly intimidation factor: just what level of violence are Mastiff actually capable of? They can howl and roar and batter the flimsy wooden fence in Beast-esque fashion, but what happens when they actually get their hands on you? There's tension in the implication. This is a massive album, rage-fueled and roiling, and as good as their discography is thusfar, I consider it to be far and away their best work to date.
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Written by: The Administrator
I am neither big and burly nor lean and mean, but yes, all the rumors are true. I have indeed been working out a lot lately. Thanks so much for noticing! Unironically though, I am really proud of the gains and the consistency I've made lately, and none of it would be remotely possible without the assistance of my favorite and most valued workout companion: muscular hardcore riffage. Real heavyweight breakdown-laden shit. It reeks of stale sweat. You know the stuff, even if you regularly make a habit of avoiding it. Anyways. Clocking in at a brisk 11 minutes and change, this 5 track EP is vicious and bloody. From the opening pummeling of "Dead On The Cross," it is very clear that Simulakra deal in outright savagery. Listening to Reincarnation is like unto being splattered to death by a berserker wielding a 20lb sledge. Reincarnation is a pulpy bloodbath littered with bone fragments. Reincarnation demands that the listener reacts by moving with an urgency and a disregard for discomfort, and from a purely practical perspective, that alone is a damn fine quality. 
Written by: Brooklyn Artemis
Releasing your first album after over ten years as a band and four years after your last EP isn’t exactly orthodox. But then, you couldn’t call Rough Justice an orthodox band either. Releasing their first demo in early 2012, there were only sporadic releases across the 2010's as members’ attention remained divided. Vocalist James Tippetthas described the band as more of a ‘passion project’ and ‘outlet’ in an interview given to Knotfest. This only became more of an issue when drummer Josh Baines’ other band began gaining more traction and success in the British, then global scene. That band is Malevolence. But after signing to Malevolence’s label, MLVLTD, the Sheffield stalwarts have reached a major milestone. Rough Justice, one of the bands credited with the creation of the current wave of British hardcore, has finally dropped their first full length, and Faith in Vain is everything I hoped for and more. After seeing them a couple of years ago, and eagerly awaiting new material since, these eight tracks have thoroughly scratched that itch. The album feels like a victory lap--an acknowledgment of the band’s raw roots in demos and EPs still only available on Bandcamp, combined with a more polished sound which takes cues from the scene that has sprung up around them. It is bruising, intense, thoughtful at times, and a very strong start to 2024 from the British hardcore scene. In other words, it fucking rips. 
Written by: The Administrator
Ah, nu-metal. Occasionally umlauted, frequently maligned. My own affair with nu-metal was lustful but exceedingly brief. The tail end of the genre's heyday represented the first time I got to introduce music to my dad rather than the other way around. While my fascination with the seemingly unmatchable aggression of Slipknot or outspoken edge and jubilant oddity of System of a Down didn't exactly translate, we did spend several months exploring and enjoying Korn's discography together. That phase passed pretty quickly in favor of my era of angsty grunge revivalism, and nu-metal ceased to have any impact in my life or listening patterns beyond the occasional nostalgia trip. For myself, and, I can only imagine, many others, it was high time for something new that could capture the same swagger and violence and unbridled magic. And thus, the prolific Garry Brents' announcement of a forthcoming nu-metal project felt like a harbinger: a nu wave of nu-metal was inevitable. Quickly, some background. If you're unfamiliar, please note that Garry has made quite the name for himself over the past few years by benefit of a collection of monikers including Gonemage, Sallow Moth, Homeskin, and Cara Neir. Besides a common creative driving force, these projects share a certain unwillingness to abide by genre convention. Instead, his work seemed to attack expectations, using familiar sounds and motifs but subjecting them to a distinct subversion. Also of note is frequency, as Garry releases new music at a pace that is frankly intimidating. Multiple projects, multiple releases, one remarkably consistent ethos. This is all to say that I fully trust Garry to deliver good shit. This debut album from Memorrhage blew away all my expectations. Sorry to spoil, but this is one of my favorite albums of the year, full stop. Let's jumpdafuck into it, shall we? 
Written by: The Administrator
Hardcore. I don't listen to a whole lot of it these days, but when I do, it inevitably comes from Upstate Records. They routinely drop absolute bangers, and when I'm in the mood to go apeshit whilst having my skull sledgehammered, Upstate's excellent roster always does the deed. Gloves Off is a prime example of a band that swiftly quenches such moods swiftly and with great violence. Their forthcoming Life...And Everything After is a prime example of how intensely immersive a solid metallic hardcore release can be. Their sound is kinetic as hell, with attention divided fairly equally between pummeling instrumentation and emotive catharsis. They just dropped the second single, and good lord, it's a killer track. |
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