Artist: Penthos
Title: Affliction
Type: EP
Label: Self- Released

British band Penthos, (I have checked – it’s some kind of God of Misery, not a typo of “Penthouse”) have produced this, their debut EP from their secret metal lair, located in deepest, darkest Weston Super Mare. At five tracks long, including an instrumental opener, it isn’t going to make too many demands on your time, nor indeed mine. Which is nice.

Firstly, I have to say that this sounds like demo’s used to sound when I first started to review heavy metal, over 9000 years ago. That is to say that everything sounds tinny, under produced, mixed extremely unevenly and the bass sound sits a couple of notches to the left of “odd”. That’s ok though, because this is essentially a demo, (albeit one with a nice inlay card), and Penthos are a band that are just starting out. The key point here is then, that I should probably concentrate on the potential of the band. The good news is that there are some really good ideas bursting through here and there, opting for a fairly old-school death metal vibe, with elements of the harder edges of Sadus-like thrash metal thrown into the mix for good measure. In many ways, particularly during the more raging sections, I was reminded of fellow British underground stalwarts Spearhead, though not nearly as tight in execution.

Worth a punt, I reckon, if only for the rumbling riffery on “Grief”, which truth be told could easily have been something that one of my favourite old bands, The Enchanted recorded. Lots of promise – slightly shonky production and occasional execution, but the charm lies in trying ideas out.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Penthos/192106544137256

Chris Davison

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