Eyeteeth - State Funeral

Labels: Atomic Breath Records

Formats: Vinyl/Digital

Release Date: 06 Oct 2023

Tracklist:

1. Welfares Prayer

2. Armoured Jerubaal

3. Pig Iron

4. Survivor Syndrome

5. Still Broke

6. Wreck Head

Having only released their first 7" back in April, UK straight edge powerviolence band Eyeteeth are set to release a brand new six-track EP via Atomic Breath Records this Friday! It's being released as a 5", 25 black vinyl copies of which will make up a special limited box set with 75 copies coming on clear vinyl. I was lucky enough to be given a pre-listen, which I'm truly grateful form. On a side note: I don't know too much about Atomic Breath Records, so if anybody could link me up in the comments that'd be great.

I love it when bands go for different vinyl formats (aside from the usual 7” and 12” forms). Eyeteeth have chosen to release their latest recordings as a 5”, little more than five months after their Straight Edge Violence 7”. Eyeteeth take their cues from fastcore and powerviolence, so don’t expect anything to last much passed thirty seconds. Opener ‘Welfares Prayer’ hits top gear straight away with blasts, screeching feedback-filled riffs and super intense vocals. With no pauses between tracks, it’s best to listen to State Funeral in one full sitting (or more of course), as ‘Armoured Jerubaal’ comes at you hard. It is hard to process music when it’s thrown at you this fast but that’s the whole point here. Get in, get fast, get out.

‘Pig Iron’ contains way more groove than it should, with Eyeteeth showing their hardcore influence. It does remind a bit of bands like Water Torture and Sea Of Shit too, which is no bad thing at all. It’s worth mentioning at this point that the record was mixed and mastered by Will Killingsworth (Ampere/Orchid/Vaccine), so it’s in very good company indeed. ‘Survivor Syndrome’ is a trip though the harshest environment you could imagine, given the sheer sonic peril that’s delivered through the speakers. 

In little over a minute you’re at the record’s penultimate song ‘Still Broke’. You get a full impression of just how hard Eyeteeth are pushing during this song. I feel like the UK fastcore community has gone under the radar in recent years, except for the likes of Endless Swarm and Atomck (I’m probably missing out loads of others too) but hopefully these guys will change that. Closer ‘Wreck Head’  finishes things up in exactly the right way by inducing pure mayhem.  

State Funeral takes what Eyeteeth did on Straight Edge Violence and dials it up several notches, The noise, the urgency and the precision make it the perfect 5” release. It’s great to see a band being this productive as well, as it means you can’t ignore or forget about them! Brilliant stuff.

There's no full pre-release stream up for this yet but you can hear some of it's track via Eyeteeth's Youtube channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@eyeteethxxx/videos.

Eyeteeth - https://eyeteeth.bandcamp.com

10 Questions: Gay Panic Defence

This new interview series is slowly starting to gather a bit of momentum. This instalment features an interview Mathew Webster, vocalist from new Scottish fast band Gay Power Defence. Thanks go out to Mathew for taking the time to answer my questions. Hope you all enjoy reading his answers as much as I did.

Who is in the band and where are you from?

Freddy plays the drums, Mathew (me) plays the voice, Ben plays the guitar but is living in New Zealand for the next year or so, so we have our bestie Red playing the guitar when we play down south. Red lives near Nottingham and we are all from Kirkcaldy in Fife.

What is the history of Gay Panic Defence? When and how did you form?

Well in short, I got pissed off with shit that was happening in Kirkcaldy. So I wrote some poems/lyrics and thought they would make some good tunes. I wrote a bunch of riffs and recorded them onto a shitty 16 track recorder and asked Freddy to drum over them. Basically that's how we did the first two demos. When it came to playing shows we asked Ben to play guitar and he became a permanent babe in the band. We have released a split with Terco from Columbia, been on a 10 day UK tour, released a tape on Skin and Bones records, done a sweet wee tour with our besties Endless Swarm and Lugubrious Children, played a cool Pride Punx squat show in London and just played Dreadfest in Leeds and we aren't slowing down. 

Have any of you played in previous bands and are you any other bands currently?

Ben played in a band called Blackmirror who were fucking sick and a band called The Ghost Train who are a cool 80s band. Freddy plays drums in Pedigree and Chums who are silly good and he plays keyboard in a funk cover band called Spliff Richards. Freddy and I both played in a band called SKELPED who were just fast hardcore noisy shit. I play in a band called Woollen formerly known as God Never Did Anything For Us. I also played in Our Smallest Adventures, Ernest, WHIV and Couch. Red plays in Let It Die, Ithaca and Mori Lucrum.

Who write’s the lyrics/music? Is it collective? 

I write the lyrics and the riffs. Freddy writes all the drum bits. We round the tunes out together but we would love to be more collective in future writing.

What subjects do you cover in your lyrics?

Aw jings, from veganism to stupid macho pricks. Loads of things mean a lot to us so we have lots to shout about. The whole reason for the band starting was because I needed somewhere to vent my frustration at the homo/transphobic attitudes of some folk in Kirkcaldy that we call friends. So we cover homophobia, transphobia, animal rights, feminist view points, racism, religion, macho bullshit and Westminster.

Are there any bands that have influenced you?

Far too many bands to mention but I grew up listening to The Smiths, Nirvana, Bjork, Whitney Houston, Fall Out Boy so I would say those bands have. I can only speak for myself but folk influence me more. People standing up for shit they believe in makes me want to do more in this band to highlight things that need to be highlighted. 

What are your favourite albums/EPs at the moment?

I'm well into the last Basement album, the Lugubrious Children tape “Oblivion” is unreal, the last Car Bomb album is great and I have recently become obsessed with the second Brockhampton album. I’m really looking forward to the Ona Snop album, Groak album and the Endless Swarm album. 

What is your favourite gig/tour story?

When we were on tour last October we spent a day in Leeds with our pals Beige Palace and that was really fucking good. We also got really into watching traveller call out videos and listening to Darkthrone albums on that tour too. We really don't party or that so we just like to hangout and go eat somewhere awesome. If you are ever in Glasgow you have to go to In Bloom for a vegan snowball because they are shit hot. 

What is your local heavy/punk scene like and who should we check out (band-wise)?

There isn't really one in Fife but Scotland has a really awesome bunch of bands making unbelievable music. Bands to check out are Bratakus, Defacer, Insufferable, Boak, Endless Swarm, Stonethrower, Kaddish, Please Believe and loads more. 

What are your favourite tipples?

Barr's limeade is a classic and club mate is a rarity but also up there. I don't drink so I'm probably the worst person to ask haha. 

You can stream and purchase downloads of all of Gay Panic Defence's music via their bandcamp page, including their latest release "Snowflake Powerviolence Vol 1", which has been give a physical tape release by Skin & Bones Records:-

Gay Panic Defence - https://www.facebook.com/GayPanicDefence/

Skin & Bones Records Store - http://skinandbonesrecs.bigcartel.com
Skin & Bones Records - https://www.facebook.com/SkinAndBonesRecords/