Tuesday, 29 May 2018

Hell Night/Sweat Shoppe - Split 7"


Labels: Encapsulated Records
Formats: Vinyl/Digital
Release Date: 26 Jun 2018

Tracklist:

1. Hell Night - Unincorporated
2. Hell Night - Overburden
3. Sweat Shoppe - Lost And Mean
4. Sweat Shoppe - Circumstance
5. Sweat Shoppe - Clawing Brain 

Here's a new split 7" that's got me both excited and nostalgic, for various reasons. Both Hell Night and Sweat Shoppe are bands that are fairly new to me; however, I think I've been sent some music by either one or both of them previously and will be digging into my review reserves after this. Hell Night is essentially a proto/trad metal and thrash band that formed in 2014. Sweat Shoppe formed a year later and plays punk rock. They're both from the US as well, if that matters.

Hell Night feature a familiar voice on vocals, though I’ll leave it to you to work out who. On their opening track Unincorporated, they take no prisoners. It’s ridiculously heavy and up-tempo, with plenty of thrash and hardcore throughout, unsurprisingly. Overburden takes from a number of sub-genres while still staying true to their love of real metal. Hell Night’s side of this split is catchy and expertly executed. As the shadows fall on their two songs, you’re left wanting more.

Sweat Shoppe are true to their punk-rock roots on opener Lost And Mean. Old-school is the order of the day here and the pace is unrelenting. The instrumentation is tight and the vocals are full of attitude. The brooding intro section to Circumstance makes you think that they’re moving in a darker direction but it’s not long before the pace is upped again. It’s great! Sweat Shoppe winds up the split with Clawing Brain, which is loud and fun from the opening note to the last. 

This small slab of wax is over way too quickly. Both bands compliment each other really well with the same love of up-tempo music and while they come at it from different ends of the heavy spectrum at first, it seems like they’re both singing from the hymn sheet at the end, proving that metal and punk belong side-by-side

This split is not yet up for streaming but you can keep up to date with release news via the band/label pages below:-

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