Although this came out a while ago it only just found its way to me and the band already have a new album complete. Still they have not exactly had a lot of press on this and have a few live dates coming up too and as it is a quiet month I thought it would be nice to do the honours on ‘Hatred For Mankind’, the Liverpool based bands debut album. Whenever I see the group’s name I am reminded of those scenes in John Carpenter’s underrated Vampires, where the bloodsuckers are pulled into the light to explode, spitting hatred and contempt at mankind before blowing chunks and that is also a pretty good definition of the vibe exuded on this CD itself, it’s certainly no easy listening experience.
Taking the Church Of Misery route there are what sounds like samples of serial killers littering the songs. It’s no case of happy stoner riffs to get the music bouncing along though but down-tempo, nasty fetid sludge laden, distempered noise on numbers such as ‘Boiled Angel.’ Vocals bark almost incidentally as they gnaw away at you, in fact on the first number it’s the unmistakable tones of Charlie M who talks his way sinisterly through the sluggish cutting riffs like a ghost from the past, which in essence is exactly what he is, the bogeyman of the summer of hate. Flying into ‘Buried With Leeches’ (all the song titles are brilliantly thought out and descriptive), this has elements of death metal as it rages away with squealing guitars in the background and a huge catastrophic drum tumult. Despite saying that, this is impossible to pigeonhole in any other way than simply calling it ‘extreme.’ Songs are often a harrowing length but if you are into the abrasiveness they are quite easy to get into and along with, although to those outside our musical universe they would no doubt be torture and perfect for playing to political prisoners to aid confessions. ‘Volcanic Birth’ hits jagged Nathrakh etched peaks of giddy blackness, adding yet another texture to the already complex sound. I think it’s the Billy Anderson production that really helps give this a particularly nasty edge and as the band are playing live on the 4th July at the Unicorn in Camden it’s going to be interesting to actually watch them live and see just how hellacious they are in that environment.
If you are looking for something particularly contemptuous and misanthropically vicious check out the groups MySpace and check out those live dates, I’m looking forward to album number 2 already and believe it is going to be one 40 minute track ‘Widowmaker’ Now that’s going to be one to separate the men from the boys.
http://www.myspace.com/draggedintosunlight
