By Jim Rowland
Based in Berlin, Maggot Heart is led by guitarist and singer Linnéa Olsson who formed the band as a solo project in 2016, after carving a name for herself in bands like The Oath and Beastmilk/Grave Pleasures. With two critically acclaimed albums under their belt, the 2017 debut ‘Dusk To Dusk’ and 2020’s ‘Mercy Machine’, ‘Hunger’ is the band’s third album and promises another dark and twisted assault on the senses.
‘Hunger’ was recorded in Berlin and mixed by the acclaimed American producer and engineer Ben Greenberg. The lion’s share of the album, on tracks like ‘Scandinavian Hunger’, ‘Archer’, ‘Concrete Soup’ and ‘Parasite’, offers up a dark, powerful and disturbed take on post-punk/alt-rock that isn’t quite like anything else you often hear, and not that easy to categorise.
With tracks like ‘Nil By Mouth’, ‘LBD’ and ‘This Shadow’, on the surface there’s a more noticeable straight-forward, harder rock approach, with some catchy, twisted pop sensibility, but still an underlying menace lurking in the background, whilst ‘Looking Back At You’s swirling, more complex cacophony of sounds and rhythms provides perhaps the album’s most intense moment.
Fans of Beastmilk/Grave Pleasures will probably be familiar with Maggot Heart already, and will certainly be impressed by this third album. If you’re not familiar with those bands, but are open to something that is dark, intense, twisted, challenging, and just that little bit different, ‘Hunger’ is well worth checking out.
- ‘Hunger‘ is out now.
- Maggot Heart play The Black Heart in Camden on Saturday 11 November.
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