ninehertz

It is going on eight years since Lower Slaughter's debut What Big Eyes was released, and opened our eyes to this incredible band, a statement album that converted many, ourselves included. Deep Living is their latest, out on Human Worth, and proves they've lost nothing in terms of their individuality and ability to excite.

This is a twelve track album without a weak moment. You are brought back into Lower Slaughter's world immediately a reminder of needed how good they are, the opening Year of the Ox feels just right, a warm tone and spoken word vocals below a part-stoner/psych/post-hardcore fog of airy noise; then heavier, screaming amid a low key whirling of guitar and drums, it is a track that feels both to have come together organically from out of nothing and wonderfully constructed. It is the epitome of the band - forging elements together seamlessly.

There are bold strains of punk and post-hardcore forwardness which contrast with the more atmospheric elements, enlivening affairs, and then even in amongst that these occasional stirrings of a vague stoner edge, akin to those of Somerset's Henry Blacker. The way it goes from the as-good-as-it-gets indie punk of The Lights Were Not Familiar to the doom oomph opening of the following Dear Phantom is further evidence of their amazing range. That latter song is incredible, forceful stoner power, with vocals that have remind me of self-titled era Neil Fallon in its spoken word sections.

There's a breezy almost-surf rock number, noise rock abundant, similarities to Hey Colossus elsewhere. The title track closer is the perfect ending, drawn out and repeating itself, it feels like a warm-down celebration, and simply has me smiling. How they pull all this together to sound coherent and not a random hotch-potch collection of approaches is miraculous, but they do, and that amalgamation is Lower Slaughter. Deep Living gives me the same feeling I had when I first heard them, maybe even more so - that this is excellent music, a hybrid of styles all of which they perform to perfection, and that this is a special band.