ninehertz

War Club appear to have been around a few years now, but are new to me, a chance crossing of Monoplanet serving as my first impression and succeeding in piquing my interest. It is likely their bandcamp tags of doom, stoner, sludge and drone worked their algorithms to find me and I’m glad they did.

For all those familiar and promising tags, they are among many others, and it shows – War Club creating a flavoursome stew from a wide range of genre ingredients. This, allied to earnest and fierce left-wing lyrics create a broad appeal. The first track, MBHW erupts with a fuzz explosion, vocals lamenting the “stop buying coffee shop drinks, afford a house” boomer rhetoric and general right wing “anti-woke” brigade, a simple but powerful stoner rock mode accompanying them effectively.

There’s a healthy dose of noise-rock in the mix, nods to bands like Olanza or Ogives Big Band. Add in occasional strains of post-metal, but with heart, vocals that, on more than one song end each word with a yapping small dog upward inflection, and there’s a lot going on. For all the deserved anger, musically this is a lot of fun.

A.I. Is Living Your Best Life reminds me a little of their fellow Londoners, the much-missed Palehorse, a doom feel but with a hardcore angst, the lyrics understandably attacking the rise of AI. The track prior contrasts the millions spent by billionaires on their space flight jaunts with rising world poverty.

It’s not perfect, a couple of tracks need a little more going on to truly grab you, but somehow it doesn’t matter because you can’t help but like it, and when they pull it together just right, there’s an electricity to this that makes you want to get behind them.