Hellbastard-Sons of bitches

Patac
2012

This long running Newcastle band are credited with coining the term "crust" to describe their brand of raw hardcore. They have released a fair amount of albums over the years and this EP is their latest effort. They have an angry moniker, an angry album title and they come at their songs like beasts tearing into raw meat. Unfortunately they are more growl than anything. They know how turn the knobs up and try to cover their limited abilities with layers of volume. On some occasions they might have me hooked for 20-30 seconds, but then they tend to stumble or just flat out reveal the fact that they cannot piece together strong bursts for very long. It's not as much messy as it just very awkward. It's like listening to a young kid at a recital and they start well, but then they hit clunkers and just can't recover. The only difference this is a veteran band getting paid to make clunkers. They can open with some heavy moments, but their lack of skill quickly pops up and had me groaning all too often. There are some decent moments here, but far too many holes for me to recommend this mediocre album.