Friday 6 April 2012

Hunt/Gather - Former Rust EP


This is an EP that has been sitting in my inbox for a little while now, so sorry to Hunt/Gather for taking so long to review it. Hunt/Gather are a hardcore band from Glasgow, there seems to be a Scottish theme about today, and they're new band to me, so I'm excited to hear them.

This is their debut EP, which was released by Struggletown Records as a digital only release. It's made up of five tracks of Botch inspired, hardcore noise.

Tracklist:-

1. Electropolitan
2. Mort Le Blanc
3. Cemetalist
4. Dead Vesicles
5. Dredger

Opener, Electropolitan, starts with a cool guitar intro, which launches into discordant, experimental hardcore. The riffs are melodic, borrowing some elements from screamo along the way. This is pretty mental, and if you like bands like Botch and The Dillinger Escape Plan, you'll love the way Hunt/Gather dart along like a school kid with ADHD!

Second track Mort Le Blanc again starts with a nice twinkly instrumental intro, and follows the same formula as the EP's opener. The vocals on this EP seem to be pretty angry, and I guess it fits the music well. Sometimes, dual screamed vocals appear, adding a high/low pitched dynamic to the music. Live, I expect Hunt/Gather to be a massive presence, on this evidence. The addition of well placed and interwoven pace changes add class to the EP.

They gather a lot of ideas into this EP, with lots of different parts moulded together, to create a sound that's pretty chaotic, yet beautiful at the same time, such as in the verses of third song Cementalist (great song title, by the way!). The other great thing about Hunt/Gather, is that they don't hold those American influences to close. Vocalist Geoff, even adds some nice melodic singing to Cementalist, which adds another layer to their sound.

Penultimate track Dead Vesicles sees Hunt/Gather getting even heavier and throwing caution to the wind. The guitars and the rhythm section motor along at quite a pace, only briefly slowing to gain breath. And so it's on too the last song, Dredger, which is your last chance to get battered over the head by this intense band. Immediately, this struck me as a top quality release by a band that are clearly writing songs for themselves, not bothered by outside influences and will not water down their brand of hardcore for anyone! This is essential stuff!

You can stream and download this EP for free via Hunt/Gather's bandcamp page:-

Also, they have a Facebook page to at http://www.facebook.com/huntgatherband.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks James. Your time is very much appreciated as is your understanding of our music. We just finished recording our album, 'False Monuments' this week and hope to release it in the near future. There's a teaser and a live performance video over at our Facebook page if you're interested in a listen - http://www.facebook.com/huntgatherband

    Thanks very much again!

    Geoff

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  2. Hi Geoff,

    Thanks very much for the kind words. It means lot to me to get feedback from the bands I write about.

    James

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