Review: Mastiff ‘For All The Dead Dreams’ EP
Yorkshire sludge/doom/hardcore monsters Mastiff have been bulldozing their way across these grim shores for over a decade now, and hot on the heels of last year’s Deprecipice album, they’ve released a new EP, For All the Dead Dreams.
Released through Church Road Records, a label whose releases have been increasing in quality every year, Mastiff seem determined to establish themselves as the UK underground’s favourite ugly, vicious nephews of violence. On a brief glance at their back catalogue, they might be closer than you think.
Bruising sludgy hardcore is what I was expecting, and bruising sludgy hardcore is what Mastiff do better than a lot of others. Opener Soliloquy has a thunderous chugging groove to it, with a guitar tone that feels like it is coated in tar as vocalist Jim Hodge snarls and roars over some of the unholiest breakdowns you could imagine. This is the kind of knuckle-dragging brutality that’ll leave trails in the concrete, such is the uncompromising heaviness of the Mastiff’s sound.
Howling feedback greets us in the dissonant thrust of Rotting Blossoms, and the angular chunkiness of the band’s riffs are a constant source of headbanging. The frantic Decimated Graves, which switches between chaotic battering and tectonic shuddering, is a nice reminder of their potential as a band that could rule UK hardcore for a long time, given the chance.
This is the kind of knuckle-dragging brutality that’ll leave trails in the concrete…
The stupidly neanderthal chug of A Story Behind Every Light is such nectar to my love of bowel-loosening heaviness that I’ve played it numerous times each day since I got this release. The modern predilection to making hardcore and sludge best friends has really ramped up the intensity of a lot of releases, and For All The Dead Dreams is no different. Closing out with the rabid Corporeal, a song that gallops to an almost unnecessarily heavy breakdown, tracks from this are going to be detonating pits across the country very soon.
A visceral, neck-wrecking experience, For All The Dead Dreams is the perfect stopgap for fans of Deprecipice, because Mastiff‘s sound is so enthralling that you can hardly wait for more to come out. Unfathomably heavy and violent at times, the pace and structure of each song is carefully calibrated to maintain the exact level of constant oppressive weight.
You would have expected Mastiff to take their newest full-length out on the town for a year or two before giving us more, but much like the slavering beast they sound like, more is never enough. For All The Dead Dreams is but another step on their blood-soaked road to UK hardcore supremacy.
Label: Church Road Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Sandy Williamson
