Mastiff – Wrank

Sometimes, just now and again, an album comes by that makes you want to do bad stuff. With ‘Wrank’, Mastiff have achieved that status

It has been said that Edvard Munch played this album on his iPod shuffle as he created and painted ‘The Scream’ in 1893, and it’s not hard to understand why he drew such inspiration from it, such is the level of despair and savagely intense hardcore sludge on display. From the deliciously menacing spoken word intro of ‘Lord Of The Worm’ ( taken from the cult horror film ‘Dead Man’s Shoes), you kind of begin to get an inkling as to what is in store, as the track races and then slows to a true Doom pace, with Jim Hodge’s disturbing and passionate vocals doing their best to reduce your soul to rubble. ‘Earplugs’, with a distorted Sabbath-esque vibe to tingle the spine, leading into ‘Warmonger’, which boasts a killer machine gun riff that blasts right through you, this is seriously good stuff

Mastiff describe themselves as “A miserable band from a miserable town”, well all I can say is that it must have been pissing down as well when they penned ‘Leeches’, a more dank and dark track you will struggle to find anywhere, quite the opposite in fact of the painfully short but totally manic blast that is ‘Slow Motion Death Roll’. I have no idea what the lyrics refer to on this track but judging from the tone I don’t think it’s about puppies and Daffodils

If ever a song title aptly described a track, then ‘Wrank’ is it, an electrifying, distorted sludge fest to end them all, a foot stomping drum beat driving everything forward over the precipice as the vocal wallows in dismal desperation

And so to the albums catchiest number, ‘Rise’. Whilst maybe not likely to knock Ed Sheeran from the top of the popular hit parade just yet, this is just so damn addictive, it should be compulsory for any serious Metalhead to have this in their collection, that riff just screams get the fuck up, and it would be rude not to. Coming in at just over seven minutes long, ‘Break The Crust Of Universal Hate’ is the albums longest (and final) track, and in many ways showcases everything Mastiff are about, “This Is Now” screams the vocal, as you are trapped in this moment of swirling dirge. Anarchic in places but really well put together

I think it was Gustave Dore that said upon completing the illustrating of Dante’s Inferno, “Blimey, that was a bit intense but nowhere near as fucked up as ‘Wrank’…” Joking aside, this is a seriously good album, U.K. underground Metal at its best. Head over to the bands social media pages for the links to get ‘Wrank’ on Spotify and such things at a ridiculously nominal amount of pennies

Mastiff – Underground and under your skin

Reviewers recommended track – Rise Up

Mastiff is :

Hodge – Vocals

Dennett – Bass

Shepherd – Drums

Wright – Guitar

Johnson – Guitar

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