Do you like Leatherface? German punx Lifewentpear sure as heck do – so much so that their six-track demo comes across like a recently-unearthed session from the dim and distant ‘Mush’ days. Okay, so maybe this is a bit unfair since the singer’s voice never quite reaches Frankie Stubbs’ guttural, gargly depths and opener ‘Shellfish’ could quite easily be mistaken for a roughed up, gruffed up Criminal Damage track, but their brand of rambunctious, fist-in-the-air punk certainly owes more than a little to Sunderland’s finest. Palm-muted chigs and chugs give way to bright, ringing open chords and restless, spark-flinging melodies, and when the singer raggedly mopes “it makes me fookin’ sad” during ‘Treat Objects Like Women’ I seriously had to double-check which part of the world the band were from. While I say this all a high degree of wryness it is, at heart, pretty flippin’ great in terms of its raw, heartfelt catchiness, and I’m really rather glad to learn that a full album’s been released since this tape came out way back in 2016. Nice one!
