When you’re confronted with an album title like wWoof? and a photo of a band trying their best to dress like a flag waved at the end of a Formula 1 race, you get an inkling that they may be a little… odd. Then you check the tracklist and the penny drops. Ah. These guys are mental.
Judging from the positive comments their live shows have received, they’re a band best served up on a small, warm stage but the recorded version is still quite enjoyable (and potentially less scary). Definitely grindcore, but with the harsh/thrash vocals rather than the grunted type, they are heavy. Very heavy. The production on this little collection is incredible and it is capable of being ramped up to next door neighbour-vaporising intensity. Or at least you can pretend they vanished in a puff of smoke after the move our due to the walls trembling constantly.
wWoof? isn’t a particularly fast album; it’s slow, ponderous and devastatingly thunderous. However, it does have a couple of… unique touches. “Bear Hugs!” (below) has an unsettlingly twee beginning before the 14:23 from aAndville ploughs into you at 125mph (farting on you as it departs). Then there’s the 11-second “wWomble!” which seems predictable after you hear it and realise you really should have been expecting that.
And, yes, all the song titles end in a “!”. Because why not! Sorry, I mean, “why not?”
The video for “Bear Hugs!” will give you an idea of the somewhat aurally-dangerous lunacy you will be suffering should you pick this beast up. If you like that track, you’ll love the EP. You’ll probably also love smashing snails with a sledgehammer as well, you strange person.
wWoof? is out on July 13th
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