Mastiff - Deprecipice

2024-03-18 08:00:15

Only a few bands understand playing with musical escalation as well as they do Mastiff. The British quintet mixes the coarse and repulsive between hardcore, sludge and brutal metal sounds with increasing enthusiasm and gives both face and vocal chords to uncompromising, all-consuming rage. The band recorded their latest caper at a time when the world was beginning to thrive again while struggling with its own demons and depression. At the same time, mastiffs are rising “Precipice” in a slightly more hardcore direction.

“Void”, in third place, is entirely in the spirit of this fine-tuning on installments, literally exploding out of the speakers with pointed hardcore, crust and grind, while the first storm clouds are gathering all around. In this foaming tension of hoarse desperation, the tempo drops step by step, is accompanied by muddy heaviness and reaches destructive dimensions, a kind of dentist’s drill in the middle serves as a grueling highlight. “Serrated” with Harry Nott from Burner and Dan James from XIII saws and pushes, hits wildly and finally unpacks a dissonant solo with a Slayer touch.

“Thorn Trauma”, on the other hand, gets the fists twirling and skilfully plays with grindcore and power violence ideas, while Jim Hodge’s vocal cords are left to decay. Desperation booms from every note, especially when the track starts to drift towards the halfway point and a small noise fanfare starts. “Cut-Throat” with the busy Ethan Lee McCarthy (Primitive Man, among others) almost completely dispenses with rhythm and hides behind doomy hills of noise. If that’s a step too far, “Bite Radius” takes off within seconds, plunges headfirst into the pit and, accompanied by putrid undertones, boldly attacks.

Mastiff venture even further and finally throw the last remnants of what could be called life out of balance. Although it’s more hardcore overall, “Deprecipice” is – of course – anything but straightforward, let alone accessible. Even more noise, even more abrupt breaks and changes, even more channeled anger drive the Brits to top form. Only a few bands manage to bring frustration and resignation into the world so bluntly. What a wonderfully ugly statement of an album.

Rating: 8/10

Available from: March 22, 2024
Available via: MNRK Heavy (SPV)

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