ninehertz

Deadwound feature members of Bast and Silent Front, two admirable bands from our capital, but from distinctly different genres. The really interesting appeal of Deadwound, immediately evident, if that the black metal influenced doom of the former and the hardcore of the latter are coalesced into an uncivil beast, pointers to both bands available, merged, glued together, fighting against each other one moment, married in union the next.

It may not be treading bold new grounds altogether, but it manages to sound unwieldy, grimy and at times vital. The doom filth of Crucifixed is further unenriched by a crust coating, hardcore overtures eventually taking over completely to quicken the pulse, a compelling concoction. Kult Warrior's vocals are pure sludge, but they sit over near post-hardcore, before again being taken over midpoint to speed things along, Jekyll then Hyde. The chaotic clashes and changes spark bright and wild.

Witch is arguably the best of the lot, a broth of gruff sludge and shrieked black metal vocals over a hardcore of reduced velocity Cursed school; imagine a halfway meeting ground where Palehorse and Slabdragger's Regress go for lunch time scuffles. This is great. There's an almost death metal anger shrouding Cruel Road, while Babylon reinforces the feel of the influence of Cursed, the medley of all out heaviness and the wrought emotion brought together expertly.

A brutal, yet hugely enjoyable twenty minutes, all in all. This pulls from several directions, but there's a punk ethos running straight through the middle, and that allied to the doom/hardcore hybrid, and some truly cracking songs - I've had Witch and Babylon on repeat for a while now - make this near essential.