By Monk
This Belfast five piece has been combining sludginess thicker than the sleech beds of the rivers that run through the heart of our mutual native city with razor-sharp punkiness and shit tonnes of positive attitude for around a decade now. A demonstration of how they believe in taking their time in doing things their own way, this new EP has been something like 18 months in the making, with the first tasters having been served up to us in the latter half of 2024.
‘Cognitive Dissident’ by and large sees them veering more towards the punkier end of their vibe, with opener ‘A Light To Detonate The World’ displaying enough sharpness to cut your veins just by glancing at them. Ever ones to fuck with your expectations, ‘felt it’ possesses a strangely space rock vibe reminiscent of soon-to-be-revisited pronkers NASA Assassin, it’s acidic edge underpinned by a deep sense of foreboding that adds that all important extra dimension.
The title track is a riot of chaotic, dissonant noise that switches from progressive metalcore to hard-edged, acidic punk and back again in less than a heartbeat, while ‘Translucent Punk’ and ‘Erasurehead’ are both aggressive, in-your-face suckerpunch slices of pure, anarchic post-punk insanity.
Closer ‘Civil Serpent’ (well, they had to throw in one of their wordplays, didn’t they?) is perhaps the most straightforward slice of pure heaviness, its deep rumbling bass line unrelenting in both its pace and its impact as the track itself twists and weaves through multiple dimensions, blending heavy stoner/doom with more cosmic, spacier elements such as those referenced earlier.
A hugely impressive return from one of the more unique bands on the Northern Ireland scene.
- ‘Cognitive Dissident‘ is out now.