ninehertz

This split was conceived last year as they played a few shows together in Scotland, with their creation now birthed through the ever excellent Cruel Nature Records, the fruit of the loins of the Derby reprobates of Pound Land and the Glaswegian lurking doom heads of Headless Kross. There are new tracks plus one cover of the other band each.

Headless Kross have seemingly been quiet but gladly never went fully away. They’ve been a leading force in UK doom for a decade and a half now, and they’re continued existence is a boon for the scene. Their new tracks highlight why, still powerful, a subtle mastery of the sound that has always been there, now honed through experience. The vocals sound truly pissed off, always set against a grand and almost lazy swinging doom – it reminds me of Lazarus Blackstar to an extent, an ex in the split partnership stakes for them.

Their cover is of Pathogen. The original is about as doomy as Pound Land get, so a natural choice for Headless Kross to pick and ripe for a sludge makeover. Naturally, the cover is about 50% longer than the original as the notes get stretched, the whole sounding massive, a thick, venomous and glorious sludge tone.

Pound Land are becoming steadily renowned as truly weirdo noise-rock ugliness with a British gutter accent – I can think of only Black Shape who be considered in anywhere proximate similar realms. Their three new songs are electric, a concoction of noise-rock, anger and saxophones usually delivered with a pissed off diatribe approach to vocal delivery. It is disjointed and off-kilter, a shambling walk home from a long night in the pub as music. There’s even a track of spacious psych rock which gives room for their generally free nature to roam which works a treat.

For their cover they pick Signed in Blood from Headless Kross’ 2019 album Projections II. Again, the song length changes according to type – here nearly half as long as the original, which has a lot of bite and grittiness to begin but settles into a doom path further through. It is in that beginning you can see Pound Land making their choice and they seem to completely deconstruct and rebuild it as one of their own, admirably.

We’ve said it a multitude of times over the years, but split releases are always a little bit more special than others – a partnership to either expose new music to each other’s fanbase or an opportunity to do something a little different and bespoke to the pairing. As both bands are already known to us, it’s in the latter that this shines and the special touch of the covers makes this one of the best splits of the year.