Huron – ‘War Party’ EP

I must admit, it came as somewhat of a surprise:  flicking through the PM archive, yours truly discovered that, despite the amount of coverage we have given to Plymouth groove metallers Huron over the past 12 months or so, we’ve actually been somewhat remiss in failing to cast our critical eye over their most recent recorded offering, this self-released little four tracker…

Well, rifling through the huge mound of unreviewed CDs here at Mosh’s Belfast outpost – well, I had nothing better to do, since a bunch of tracksuited hoodies are doing their best to bring a halt of everyday life in this part of the world – lo and behold there emerged a rather pristine copy of aforesaid ‘War Party’:  what better time to stick it on ye olde death deck and give it a little spin, followed by a few inane words of judgement?

You could be forgiven for thinking that ‘War Party’ is a very much a stop gap release between the quintet’s quite frankly brilliant sophomore album ‘Mary Celeste’ and their third full-lengther, which they currently are in the advanced stages of recording.  Well, you’d be wrong, as this is an extremely strong and impressive offering in its own right, showcasing a band who are progressing leaps and bounds in the development of their sound, which lies somewhere between Megadeth, Machine Head (Sean Palmer’s vocal on the aggressive-as-fuck-your-mama ‘Bite The Kerb’, for example, easily rivals anything Robb Flynn has produced) and Meshuggah (especially on Rohan James’ understated bass work, as highlighted on the beautifully progressive vibe of ‘Mercy Killing’, a song that is so restrained but still oozes an imminent violent explosion from every pore).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm7tP0eEdGo]

A superb taster for what promises to be one of the UK metal albums of 2013:  if this forthcoming opus is anywhere on the same level as this awe-inspiring EP, it’s gonna rip the pure shite clean out of every self-respecting metallers’ stereo system.

[9.5/10]

Track list:

1. Fight For Your Life
2. Room 174
3. Bite The Kerb
4. Mercy Killing

‘War Party’ is avaible now.