Mastiff are better than your band.

Mastiff

BORK

Seemingly bursting out of nowhere Mastiff have been making a huge name for themselves on the live music circuit with their dark brand of metal and intimidating live performances. By their own admission this hate sludge quintet from hull are a miserable band from a miserable town. Not here to make friends and definitely not here to make party music these lads have set out to carve their own black festering mark on the UK metal scene. Their first recorded effort Wrank acted as a kind of mission plan, giving listeners just a taste of the hostility yet to come. Mastiffs upcoming EP, BORK, makes good on all of these threats. Everything is turned up to 11... its nastier, more aggressive and more importantly heavier. Filled with downtuned heavy riffing and guitar tones so thick they will crack your teeth, BORK doesn't shy away from mixing up the tempos. Mastiff are able to switch from a methodical grinding trudge to faster paced hardcore beats at a moments notice all kept together by the tight drumming throughout the EP. This is one the things that is great about mastiff, they seem to have remembered the Hardcore punk roots of sludge bands like Eyehategod, Buzzoven and graveyard rodeo that many modern sludge bands seem to  have forgotten. Tracks like Nil By Mouth and Threats show their chops as a hardcore band just as much as a sludge band. All this is coupled with the confrontational, nihilistic lyrics. Jim's vocals throughout the EP sound great with his ability to switch between aggressive barks, piercing shrieks and gut wrenching low growls that at times almost sound inhuman. Blazing through the 6 tracks on the EP, BORK barely gives the listener time to breath, creating a dark and claustrophobic atmosphere throughout and eventually reaching a crescendo when yawning feedback breaks into the final track Eternal Regret. An excellent way to close out the EP, this track almost feels like a ballad compared to the rest of the album and with heavy shades of introspection and self loathing as the title suggests. Bork is one of the heaviest things to be released this year and with how heavy the EP sounds its almost unbelievable that the entire thing was recorded in two days! For fans of real sludge metal BORK is a really exciting EP. This isn't another wish washy affair from a band that don't know whether they want to be stoner, sludge or doom whilst somehow missing the point of all three. Mastiff know exactly what they want and what they want is to produce real nihilistic sludge metal, which in my opinion is something the UK music scene needs more of. There is no bullshit, there is no pretension... just pure fucking hatred. 

FFO: Eyehategod, Buzzoven, Seven Sisters Of Sleep, Methdrinker, Noothgrush, Fistula

9/10

BORK will be released on the 31st of august available in physical and digital formats through APF records.