Bristol is no stranger to brutality at the moment. The seemingly endless stream of videos coming out of the Kill The Bill protests, in which police have been seen confronting (and needlessly attacking) peaceful bystanders and even journalists has been shocking. There is a great deal of anger all over the country in the last year and Bristol has been frequently at the centre of it. So, fittingly the latest release out of the city comes from a pretty extreme hardcore band in Lightning Sharks.
You can’t call your band something like Lightning Sharks without being super heavy and intense, can you?
Their fittingly titled debut EP ‘Life is a Hideous Thing’ features three tracks of jarring, complex, groove based hardcore/noisecore.
The EP absolutely blasts out of the blocks with the grotesque discordant opening guitar squeal of “Below The Snakes”. It contorts and winds through various grooves and spiky melodic hooks. All the while, vocalist Rixon screams with the powerviolence the Incredible Hulk. It just sounds like destruction.
They follow this up with the no less intense “Nomads”. The intro has similar melodic sensibilities to At The Drive-In at their best. They’re not done here though, and tip it over the edge with shrieking pitch-shifted guitars and pummelling drums. It’s an unrelenting climax.
The third and final track, the unpleasantly named “Best Dressed Sex Pest” lulls us into a false sense of security. Slow and melodically gentle for the first minute, they suddenly tear into an extreme rage of drums and angular guitar stabs.
It’s not hard to visualise the intense and sweaty live show that Lightning Sharks will no doubt be renowned for. “Life Is A Hideous Thing” is, indeed, a hideous thing. In a good way.
“Life Is A Hideous Thing” is out today, 2nd April, via Brighton label Halfmeltedbrain Records.
You may enjoy this if you like: Fucked Up, Dillinger Escape Plan, At The Drive-In
Comments