Rating: 6.9 Release Date: 2004 Record Label: Grindhead Records Track list: Band Website: Hailstones Kill 200 |
Hailstones Kill 200 - July 19, 1932 This dense EP is attention-grabbing and charismatic in its approach. The sound production and general feel of the riffage owes much to The Dillinger Escape Plan, but with a berserk fizzy-edged Nasum quality. The level of technicality is somewhere between these two bands; never attempting to outmanoeuvre the former and retaining the effective bluntness of the latter. The band are a tight and capable unit that weave death, grind and mathcore influences into pithy packets of sabre-toothed ferocity. Furthermore, most of the quicksilver songs have their own recognisable quirks and crazed delivery. Thick clanging bass intros, shuffling disharmonics, volatile breakdowns, syncopated grooves, intermittent blasting, dissonant chords punctuating fretwork - all in a very short space of time. Strictly speaking there is nothing new here, but the band already have found an eccentric niche that may actually satisfy a broad fanbase. So far we only have a synopsis to judge; now we await the red-blooded onslaught of a full album.
September 30th, 2005 |
