Ferocious slab of punch-in-the face metalcore, which manages to weave together ugly beatdowns, razorwire riffage and, when the moment so demands, a deft sense of the epic.
Opener ‘Fuck Your Whole Life’ rather sets the tone and outlook: a vicious, roiling, jagged-edge slice of hate that takes absolutely no prisoners as it grinds out one merciless riff after another. Bands like Arkangel, Merauder and Day Of Suffering all spring to mind at one point or another, though the vulture-like shadows of fellow Essexites Raiden and My Cross To Bare also loom large over proceedings.
While brutality and a sense of relentlessness are key traits, the band also thread in some unexpected undercurrents. ‘We Share Blood’, for example, boasts the kind of thunderously ignorant chorus that would do Biohazard proud, while also displaying an odd mix of brooding Slayerisms and woozy experimentation. Then there’s ‘Gethsemane’, an honest-to-god rock ballad that sounds like ‘Planet Caravan’ by way of Baroness.
All of this makes for a fearsome and genuinely thrilling experience: a trachea-crunching endurance test that knows exactly when to unleash hell, and when to temper the slugfest with an elegant, blade-like what-the-hell-did-they-do-there?! moment.