Band – Hornets
EP – No Faith
Label – Guys With Beards Records
Release date – 31 March (out now)
Sounds like – Encompassing bleakness, dirt and decay meets sludge metal
I thought it was supposed to be getting lighter? Hornets certainly don’t think so; tapping into the realms of darkness and despair on No Faith, an EP that’s littered with bad feelings, ugly, chewed-up riffs and a sense of foreboding doom. Just what you need now that summer is around the corner! Hailing from Belfast, Hornets have been kicking around for a few years, with a couple of EPs under their belts (2013’s Truth and 2011’s Thrash Hallion/Two Common Thieves) and they’ve decided that 2014 will be the year they inflict more of their snapping, caustic hardcore on us all – yes!
Crust-metal, doom-punk delivered with guts and bile…No Faith is a scathing slab of dark hardcore..
Opening track Stay Free is a bile-soaked, acidic burn of venom. The guitars are a crusty, scythe of gnarled dirt-punk, whilst the dual vocal-trade off between the gravelly voiced Sib and the banshee-screeches of drummer Rick, slot together perfectly. It’s a rampant, direct attack of fast-paced, concise thrash, with the sound of jock-hardcore attempting to punch through. As EP openers go, it’s one of the best I’ve heard this year and it sets the pace and tone for No Faith; one of which is a rough and seething journey.
Advice begins with a slovenly, doom-laden riff that rings out like it fell off a Sunn 0))) mastering session, before splintering apart into a more straightforward, but no-less menacing slab of gruff, hardcore, topped off by guttural gang-vocal yelps and grungy, sludge-filled bass rumbles. Jehovah sinks deeper into the vein of muddy, suffocating contortion, piling on the dread and harrowing, decay. You can see elements of early-Torche shining through on this track – a tight slab of dense groove-filled stoner-noise, that then erupts into the rampant, spitting thrash-punk with traces of black metal thrown in for good measure and yet more mire-coated riffage.
Images of a mighty beast emerging from the waves are conjured up during the opening scrawl of low-end guitars on For Always – it then dips into the hanging-from-the-rafters, hardcore groove that wouldn’t look out of place on a Hatebreed record or even a Weekend Nachos jam. Closing track Behind Me, substitutes speed for layers of thick, bass-heavy sludge-metal. Fed through a filter of pulsating ooze, the vocals are spat with indignant, glass-eating rage, whilst the filth that has enveloped the guitars threatens to drown everything in its path.
Crust-metal, doom-punk delivered with guts and bile; Hornets have kicked off their 2014 superbly – No Faith is a scathing, serrated slab of of dark hardcore – guaranteed to give you a buzz.
Order No Faith on wax from Guys With Beards Records or alternatively, visit their bandcamp below:
Links
Hornets Facebook
Hornets Bandcamp
Hornets Twitter
Guys With Beards
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Junior Vice President of Keep It Fast. In other news: I work in social media, talk about dinosaurs, run a book club and have amazing facial hair. I am also a male man who is still not dead.
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