Labels: SuperFi
Review by: Chris Bress
Superfi follow up their excellent Orthrelm / Trencher split with a great split between two of the UK’s best bands going. Lavishly packaged in a gatefold cover, and on thick, clear vinyl, you can’t go wrong! This was released partly for the European tour that both bands went on recently, bet it was fun.
The Robots went on first with “In the shadow of swine” which starts with some full on brutal screaming from Mr Davies and goes straight into some erratic brutal thrash. The track flies by and is seeringly brutifal. The riffs are powerful as fuck and the drumming is as ever a straight out attack. The Robots show on this track their ability to make a load of noise whilst not primarily relying on straight forward thrash by the numbers or screamo. Three quarters of the way through “In the shadow of swine” there is a moment of complete dischord which rolls onto the Gehenna meets Unruh like ending (that used to be the ending to their track “Drift”). “Embodiment” has been a live favourite for ages, it kicks off with this amazing riff that’s somewhere between From Ashes Rise, Darkest Hour and Converge (but straight forward and mosh-tastic). “Embodiment” then makes Kreator look like late Promise Ring until it gets to one of the best IHC moment for a very long time. Not since Catharsis has a band fucking rocked a riff like this so hard, and the Robots can more than make up for their passing.
Taint were so excellent live the other day my head nearly fell off. This track documents what they were like to a T. They combine classic DC riffs with classic stoner / doom rock outs. They are very ROCK but they have excellent song writing abilities. Their side kicks off like Kerosene 454 in their classic rocking mode, but ultimately where Taint come up trumps is that they beef up the sound a bit. The main riff is so punishing it of course sounds best when its being banged out again and again in classic Circle or Neu meets Fu Manchu mode. The peak of “I’m going to kill Henry ford” is the meandering ending, it slows it down whilst not lacking any of the rock punch documented earlier on their side.
This 7″ is pretty fucking incredible and it’s great to see two brilliant bands sound so good as well as benefiting each other with a different take on great music.