Many years ago, a friend and I were somewhat obsessed with Earache’s ‘Earplugged’ video compilation. I’d bought it second-hand from a ratty shop in Southend-on-Sea called Gumby’s, a place which largely specialised in knock-off Nirvana t-shirts but also turned up the occasional musical gem. As well as standouts like Sleep, Bolt Thrower and Godflesh, ‘Earplugged’ featured a video for Brutal Truth’s ‘Ill Neglect’. This particular clip featured, variously, an owl, an angle grinder, a monkey in a cage and members of the band hitting things on a building site. The video ends with Kevin Sharp doing that shrieky thing he does and pulling a bit of a face. While awed that such music should be allowed to exist, we also found these last few seconds and Mr Sharp’s facial aerobics endlessly amusing, rewinding/replaying them when we should have been doing other, more serious, things. Kids, eh? Bloody idiots, all of them. Anyway, in my roundabout way, what I’m trying to get at is that The Afternoon Gentlemen play grind of a type that reminds me of Kevin Sharp screaming his face off. Maybe they, too, watched ‘Earplugged’ on loop but put their experience to a better and more productive use like learning to play grindcore. The first two tracks are short and crisp. They tear and thrash and blast about. The last one, ‘Still By The Still’, is a bit more varied. It has some powerviolent thumps about it and descends into something that could almost be described as a basement rate Candlemass meets MITB moment. Needless to say, this is my favourite part of the whole three-song 7″.
