What had initially piqued my interest about this band was the apparent Hated reference in their name. Given this and their close ties to the Pine I thought they may well be worth checking out, perhaps another band mining the latter half of the 80s and the early 90s for their influences rather than solely concentrating on what the last five years have spat out.
Off flew the crumpled dollar bills, and in time came a scrappy package containing this demo in all its DIY glory, replete with paper bag packaging and glued-on photocopy cover. The first two minutes pass much as anticipated, a simple piece of minor key instrumentation wrapped in a warm layer of fuzz, like something Evergreen may have tinkled out while they waited for their singer to arrive at the rehearsal room. Suddenly all of that niceness comes to an unruly halt before everything is cranked up several notches: feet hit distortion pedals, drumsticks clatter across everything within reach as quickly as possible and someone begins to holler and screech in a most ungodly manner. Thus the tone is set, and that warm cuddly introduction is tossed aside like sheeps’ clothing to reveal the snaggle-toothed wolf within.
Of the five songs, most take the play-really-fast-and-scream-bloody-murder route, a furious melee of jagged half-chords strangled out of guitars and shivering cymbal crashes topped by what sound like dual boy/girl vocals. From time to time the paces slows and we’re treated to snaking, almost-melodic guitar lines of the type that the South play so deftly, or slower, pounding sections that hit like a clawhammer to the back of the skull. It’s a basic enough sound, paying homage to the likes of Heroin, Honeywell and Born Against, but played well and with apparent gusto. True to form, everything is as underproduced as possible, a scruffy rough and ready performance that sounds like it’s in the practise room next door to yours, just the way bands like this should sound. Decent.