Swedish power-trio Liar Thief Bandit's Diamonds is the third album from The Sign Records that I’ve been fortunate enough to review this year, the others being releases from Askväder and Marvel. Each plays their own variation of garage rock soaked in melodies, harmonies, and inevitable guitar leads. While I enjoyed Askvader and Marvel’s albums, I’ll be honest and admit I haven’t returned to them much more than some songs on shuffle play. Liar Thief Bandit's new album, Diamonds, on the other hand, is a step up. Yes, the Thin Lizzy influence is obvious and, honestly, wonderful. I love those guitars when done well, and here they’re done well. That’s not all, though. While the tune Better Days recalls Cheap Trick, I was also pleasantly surprised by their awesome, faithful cover of Graveyard’s Ain’t Fit To Live Here.
Diamonds, released just over a year after their 3rd full length Deadlights, is marketed as a mini-album, which isn’t an EP, but isn’t necessarily a full-length of original material either. As promised in the promotional material, Diamonds does pick up where Deadlights left off. And this is not a bad thing at all. I’ve actually just recently discovered that Deadlights is chock-full of great punk soaked garage rock steeped, again, in catchy AF melodies. Diamonds, though, is produced and mixed by different folks, so perhaps there’s something to that extra salt I’m getting from it, the songs perhaps sounding like they’re coming from deeper in the guts. .
Throughout, Mikael Jacobson’s fierce vocals are glassy smooth and he rocks riffs that pull at you like a rip current. Meanwhile, William Grube (drums) and Niklas Dahre (bass) are bolted into a rhythmic interplay that thunders into your bones. As a band, they’re a lot of fun to listen to, and they’ve put out some heartfelt, energetic songs here that are catchy enough to induce singing along and repeated listens. While Deadlights is definitely worth going back to and digging into if you haven’t (personal note: I’ve Got A Lot Of Money Comin’ In sounds like it could be a song by the Fluid!), this latest release, Diamonds, recorded in just 7 days and released just 16 months later, is a worthwhile addendum to the previous album that proudly stands on its own. This record deserves your attention. As you are wont to do: play it loud. 8/10
KEN Mode – Null (Artoffact Records) [Steve Walsh]
After over 20 years of existence, most bands would have either dried up creatively, switched to nostalgia mode, or just given up altogether. It seems that hardcore metallers KEN Mode are made of sterner stuff. Although not the most prolific of bands (7 albums since 2003's debut Mongrel) each album has represented a deliberate and emphatic step forward, to the point where Null achieves an incandescent level of intense fury and rage that's rarely matched by bands half their age.
Jesse Mathewson's guitar and Scott Hamilton's particularly gnarly and nasty bass rampage around Shane Matthewson's emphatic drums, while Kathryn Kerr's synth and saxophone stab jolts of unhinged noise into songs that barely hold together in their precisely organised chaos. Oddly for a band clearly coming from a hardcore background, there's not much here that is particularly fast, but the weight the sound carries is thrown around with a gravity defying lightness.
Writhing – Of Earth And Flesh (Everlasting Spew) [Matt Cook]
Writhing, an Australian-based death metal collective, unleashed their two-track EP in 2020 which marked the first taste of what was to come. But I don’t think anything could have prepared the world for the foursome’s debut full-length, Of Earth And Flesh. Pat James flexes death-defying grunts, gutturals you hear before slaughtering a pompous gaggle of invading Persians, and girthy sustained harshes that have the potential to give the listener the bends.
Diamonds, released just over a year after their 3rd full length Deadlights, is marketed as a mini-album, which isn’t an EP, but isn’t necessarily a full-length of original material either. As promised in the promotional material, Diamonds does pick up where Deadlights left off. And this is not a bad thing at all. I’ve actually just recently discovered that Deadlights is chock-full of great punk soaked garage rock steeped, again, in catchy AF melodies. Diamonds, though, is produced and mixed by different folks, so perhaps there’s something to that extra salt I’m getting from it, the songs perhaps sounding like they’re coming from deeper in the guts. .
Throughout, Mikael Jacobson’s fierce vocals are glassy smooth and he rocks riffs that pull at you like a rip current. Meanwhile, William Grube (drums) and Niklas Dahre (bass) are bolted into a rhythmic interplay that thunders into your bones. As a band, they’re a lot of fun to listen to, and they’ve put out some heartfelt, energetic songs here that are catchy enough to induce singing along and repeated listens. While Deadlights is definitely worth going back to and digging into if you haven’t (personal note: I’ve Got A Lot Of Money Comin’ In sounds like it could be a song by the Fluid!), this latest release, Diamonds, recorded in just 7 days and released just 16 months later, is a worthwhile addendum to the previous album that proudly stands on its own. This record deserves your attention. As you are wont to do: play it loud. 8/10
KEN Mode – Null (Artoffact Records) [Steve Walsh]
After over 20 years of existence, most bands would have either dried up creatively, switched to nostalgia mode, or just given up altogether. It seems that hardcore metallers KEN Mode are made of sterner stuff. Although not the most prolific of bands (7 albums since 2003's debut Mongrel) each album has represented a deliberate and emphatic step forward, to the point where Null achieves an incandescent level of intense fury and rage that's rarely matched by bands half their age.
Jesse Mathewson's guitar and Scott Hamilton's particularly gnarly and nasty bass rampage around Shane Matthewson's emphatic drums, while Kathryn Kerr's synth and saxophone stab jolts of unhinged noise into songs that barely hold together in their precisely organised chaos. Oddly for a band clearly coming from a hardcore background, there's not much here that is particularly fast, but the weight the sound carries is thrown around with a gravity defying lightness.
Reference points are always personal, but they've mastered the kind of slow churning riffage Jesus Lizard were particularly good at, and there's a Shellac like tendency to stretch form and space in unexpected ways. There's also a strong suspicion that Swans inform the bands influences, with the 10 minute Lost Grip taking its time to pummel and grind, and closer Unresponsive evokes the kind spacious aural horror Swans explored on Greed/Holy Money.
Lyrically the band continue to explore issues of mental health/instability and social and emotional alienation ("This un-tasteful place....../Something is broken/Something is FUUUUCKED!" from opener A Love Letter and "I've got nothing worthwhile to say/And you've got no reason to listen" from But They Respect My Tactics are typical sentiments), and you have to hope that writing and playing these songs provides a healthily counterbalancing catharsis for the band.
The other good news is that apparently this is part one of a projected pair of albums, although no news on when the next (called Void, maybe?) is likely to appear. Can't wait. This is a terrific album. 8/10
Anti-Clone - Human (Self Released) [Elliott Spencer]
It was only a matter of time before late-generation Nu Metal had something of a comeback. Anti-Clone hark back to all the vocal eccentricities, straightforward drop-tuned riffs and melodic choruses of the early 2000s. To the band’s credit, there’s a noticeable modern flare to the songs on Human and the fact that these songs were written as a response to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and general exploitation going on in the world is commendable.
Lyrically the band continue to explore issues of mental health/instability and social and emotional alienation ("This un-tasteful place....../Something is broken/Something is FUUUUCKED!" from opener A Love Letter and "I've got nothing worthwhile to say/And you've got no reason to listen" from But They Respect My Tactics are typical sentiments), and you have to hope that writing and playing these songs provides a healthily counterbalancing catharsis for the band.
The other good news is that apparently this is part one of a projected pair of albums, although no news on when the next (called Void, maybe?) is likely to appear. Can't wait. This is a terrific album. 8/10
Anti-Clone - Human (Self Released) [Elliott Spencer]
It was only a matter of time before late-generation Nu Metal had something of a comeback. Anti-Clone hark back to all the vocal eccentricities, straightforward drop-tuned riffs and melodic choruses of the early 2000s. To the band’s credit, there’s a noticeable modern flare to the songs on Human and the fact that these songs were written as a response to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and general exploitation going on in the world is commendable.
This EP is genuinely inspired rather than indulgent in throwback angst. However, the songs themselves are less inspiring. The opening title track fails to provide the effective rallying cry it intends and while closer Spiteful offers some mangled but bouncy riffs, it never fully commits to the crushing tone it’s title and fast pace teases. This isn’t to say that these songs lack ear-catching moments, though. The chorus on Punish Me is suitably catchy and a Danny Elfman-esaque melody weaves itself into the bridge of End Of The World for instance.
But the results rarely reach the heights of Anti-Clone’s peers such as Cane Hill or Vended. Anti-Clone are certainly efficient at their style but Human ultimately sounds like a mere hint of what they’re capable of rather than a statement of intent. 5/10
Writhing – Of Earth And Flesh (Everlasting Spew) [Matt Cook]
Writhing, an Australian-based death metal collective, unleashed their two-track EP in 2020 which marked the first taste of what was to come. But I don’t think anything could have prepared the world for the foursome’s debut full-length, Of Earth And Flesh. Pat James flexes death-defying grunts, gutturals you hear before slaughtering a pompous gaggle of invading Persians, and girthy sustained harshes that have the potential to give the listener the bends.
Someone needs to offer this man a job as a personal trainer. It sounds like he was meant for it. Overall, the eight songs act as a sexy kaleidoscope of forceful, hurricane-force-winds metal. A storm cloud of toxic fumes hovers over every song, and therein also lies a surplus of death-doom elements. Concealed Within The Soil boasts chugs that tickle your happiness gland and is the equivalent of a crocodile’s nightmare-inducing death roll. That Which Becomes Death is diabolically inclined and James’s output packs the same ferocity as being hit in the face by a cinder block shot out of a cannon in minus-45 degree weather.
The opening track (Monolithic Extinction) sounds like castrating a rhinoceros, a feat that is probably as impossible to successfully pull off as is selling this record to a bubblegum pop music fan. The title track batters your ears while simultaneously putting you into the head of a berserker as he consumes mushrooms by the bundle and readies to decimate everyone in sight, friend and foe alike.
Joel Gregory masterfully commands his guitar with equal parts sluggish, fatalistic doom and BPM-spiking death. The combined effort blitzkriegs the unexpected general population with the same opioid-fuelled thrust of the Nazis into Poland. Everlasting Spew may not be the most recognisable label (they boast the likes of Altars and Refulsed), but Writhing alone stamped the company into the extreme metal discussion. They batter, pummel, ambush and eradicate. 9/10
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