This four piece based in Brighton and Glasgow certainly enjoy to walk on the heavier side of the musical highway and Lower Slaughter‘s sophomore release revels in doomy, sludgy, brilliant riffs enhanced by the spiky growling vocals of Sinead Young.
I loved debut album, What Big Eyes, and with Some Things Take Work they have moved the dial again. This is a heavy, raucous and clever sonic assault that you may have to steady yourself for before donning the headphones.
The overall impression is that of Garage/DIY rock gone extreme, but despite the lo-fi nature of whats on offer, the band are as tight as can be and have explosive riffs coming out of every pore.
Opener Gas is a slower, grinding number that relies heavily on the vocals of Young to carry the track, which she does easily. We then are launched into the chugging Reboundaries, that sits somewhere between punk and Sabbath on the rock scale.
To be fair, there’s not a huge amount of variation in this album. Stylistically your’e going from punk, through metal of various types, but when it’s this good, who cares.
There are some different shades in here. Standout track Some Things Take Work is higher paced, slightly lighter in tone and actually quite catchy. A Portrait Of The Father contains some of the most delicate moments on the album and a slightly bluesy feel.
Elsewhere, there’s the all our Mötorhead-tastic The Measure Of A Man, and some properly sludgy doom-metal-done-well on Revenant, but generally you know what you’re going to get on this album – and it’s likely to make you ears bleed.
Closer The Body epitomises everything that has come before it, shifting between jangly indie guitars and crunching riffs, culminating in a hypnotic, head-pounding sign-off.
Certainly this album isn’t going to be to everyone’s tastes, but those with a penchant for the heavier side of music should lap this up.
Release date: 29 March 2019
Rating: 8/10
Standout track: Into The Fire
For fans of:
- Black Sabbath
- Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs
- Sleep
The Album Review 