Anchors and Roses - Distance EP

Since I reviewed EP's by both Grown By Earth and Totem Skin last year, there seems to no shortage of Scandinavian crust/hardcore bands coming my way. For anyone who read those reviews, you'll be wanting to check Anchors and Roses out too. This three piece from Jonkoping in Sweden, came to my attention last October with their four track EP Distance, so here's my review.

Tracklisting:-

1. A Forever Waltzing Temptation
2. Oh Dear:
3. And A Heart In Constant Needs of Mending

4. In Cities of Sleepers

Anchors and Roses have a sound that leans towards garage-punk when they break out into A Forever Waltzing Temptation. It's a raw, live sound that's full of dissonant guitar and feedback. There's elements of crust and hardcore in the mix and the screams sound furious. This is not easy listening by any means. Oh Dear; is the other song here that stays on the short side. Like the opener, it's less than two minutes and it just turns into one big mess of noise and shouting. The feedback ringing out of the speakers before a mathy guitar section towards the end. Crazy, crazy stuff!

Anchors and Roses change slightly with And A Heart In Constant Need of Mending. The song is longer, but they don't lose any of their bite. They punctuate their crust with slower sections, which add to the menacing atmosphere and make them sound more together. It focuses the mind if you will. They even add a danceable riff into the mid-section amongst the sludgy, noisy verses. Final track In Cities of Sleepers is their longest piece and it builds on what has come before. The feedback and dissonance is still there as is the passionate shouting and pounding drumming. Anchors and Roses manage to inject further ideas into their music while still sounding purposefully confrontational and caustic. It's hard to imagine these guys being able to reign themselves in, as this is pretty much off the chain. 

I liken it to Old Wounds in all their chaotic style. This has that same feel and is equally as abrasive. It's also loud thanks to an ace production, which leaves it sounding intentionally dirty. Four songs just isn’t enough here. Go on, I dare you to challenge yourself!

As if that wasn't enough, you can stream the whole EP below:-

The EP is also available for free download from the above page, so spoil yourselves and give these guys some support.

Head over to their Tumblr page at http://weareanchorsandroses.tumblr.com or their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/anchorsandroseshc to keep up to date with what they're doing.