Swiftly following last year’s crushing Deprecipice, Hull’s masters of misery Mastiff are back again brandishing their unique blend of rage-fuelled, hardcore-infused sludge. Having recently and deservedly been signed to the wonderful Church Road Records, Mastiff are perfectly poised to inflict their crushing new EP, For All The Dead Dreams, upon us all. The five tracks presented here are amongst their fiercest and most immediate work to date. There is no let up here, no light relief; this is a band practically puking negativity and seemingly having a fucking blast doing it.
Opener “Soliloquy” sets the tone perfectly. With stone-wall-thick riffage bolstered by thunderous drums, it’s a barrage of unrelenting nihilism, culminating in the monstrous roar of powerhouse vocalist Jim Hodge begging to be buried “in a shit filled grave”. You can practically feel the bile dripping from your speakers.
The short but very much not sweet “Rotting Blossoms” follows, a nightmare of swirling riffs being the perfect foil for Hodge to bellow “Fear lives longer than any fucking love”, dragging the listener into an ever-darkening, spiralling abyss. The groove-infected but no less dark “Decimated Graves” finds the band infusing some death metal stylings into proceedings. With Corpsegrinder-style vocals and impenetrably chunky riffs, it’s rare to find this level of misery so danceable. Yet the anger here remains palpable as Hodge spits, “Stealing the land for profits off arms / Lining your nest with corpses of kids”, conjuring images of the horrific videos we have seen from war-torn Palestine.
The devastatingly personal “A Story Behind Every Light” feels like the EP’s centrepiece, a hurricane of grief and torment that finds frontman Hodge lamenting, “I miss you every single day/Life’s cruel joke took you away”. This is music as pure catharsis and touches upon the very reason many of us listen to and make music of this nature: as a release for our darkest feelings and emotions. Finally, the EP closes with the pummelling “Corporeal”, battering the listener’s senses one final time, leaving them breathless at the sheer power and rage of this band.
Throughout the EP, the abominable force of guitarists James Lee-Ross and Phil Johnson in particular sounds nothing short of colossal, whilst bassist Dan Dolby and drummer Mike Shepherd anchor their sound to murky, rumbling depths. In Jim Hodge, they also have one of the finest vocalists in the underground scene right now; seeing them live is an absolute must. Mastiff have become increasingly impressive with each release, but here they sound more vital and urgent than ever before and have truly cemented their core sound. Their songwriting is sharp (these tracks are amongst the catchiest they’ve written) whilst the production and mixing by the now legendary Joe Clayton feels clearer and heavier than ever. In short, this is music that clearly needed to be made, and more importantly, needs to be heard.
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For All The Dead Dreams is out 24th October via Church Road Records
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