Having teased and indeed savaged ears with their first single Bulldozer recently, British metallers Spreading The Disease reveal more of their crushing sound and intensive potential with debut EP Viral. Consisting of four anthemically vicious and belligerently compelling slabs of raw rock ‘n’ roll, the release is a rousing protagonist. It comes littered with crucial grooves, predatory rhythms, and an enterprise which is as in the face hungry as the intensity fuelling each conflict within. It is early days for Spreading The Disease but the suggestion posed by Viral is that the UK has another ferocious and invigorating adventure brewing within its metal/heavy rock landscape.
Formed late 2014 by Steve Saunders, the former bassist of The Self Titled who approached his new endeavour with the intent to allow “a different approach to both band policy and creativeness”, the Kent based Spreading The Disease quickly expanded its line-up with drummer Edd Saunders. In relatively short time lead guitarist Julien Riquelme, rhythm guitarist Martin Osborne, and vocalist Adam May were completing the band’s personnel with a handful of songs soon emerging. Inspirations to their sound include the likes of Pantera, Kill or Be Killed, and Stone Sour through to Slipknot, Machine Head, and Breed 77, essences audible in the unbridled fury of first single Bulldozer. Now it is Viral poised to emulate its success with a potency which pretty much is what it says on the tin, offering an invasive and sweeping brutally with the potential to stir up the national metal scene.
F.U.C.K.U. roars through ears first, the EP opener emerging from a percussive ring of an invitation to intrude upon and stir up the senses. An initial riff is the coaxing prelude to a predatory stroll of irritable riffs and punchy rhythms swiftly bound in just as magnetic and tetchy grooves. The energy and attack of the track enjoyably ebbs and flows without ever leaving the listener void of an incentive to respond in kind to its anthemic provocation whilst the imagination gets entangled in the magnetic craft of Riquelme and Osborne. With the raw at times vitriolic squalls of May’s vocals loaded in unbridled rage and emotion, the track is a thunderous incitement and impressive start to the encounter.
Lost Generation is a matching exploit in songwriting and volatile invention, it too with a reserved entrance which soon builds into a formidable and cantankerously imposing canter. The song never quite reaches the viciousness of its predecessor but certainly emulates its success in sound and creative tenacity. More diversity to the vocals courts unpredictable and gripping twists and turns within the metal meets heavy rock ‘n’ roll powder keg whilst grooves spawned just infect the psyche with their virulent toxicity. With rhythms battering and provoking with similar potency the track is the kind of weighty rock ‘n’ roll instincts get greed over.
Bulldozer comes next and gets straight to the aggressive point as the bearish tones of May skirt the senses within a sinew driven onslaught of sound. It is an intrusion soon veined by classic metal enterprise though, that fiery sonic tempering to the brutality around it shaping the fluid fusion of calmer if still volatile moments within the bestial and contagious tempest. With a fierce climax to take on the world with, the track forcibly reminds why as that first introduction to the band, it impressed and sparked strong anticipation for Viral. Fair to say it still ensures thick satisfaction and the need to make a physical involvement with each and every listen but the fact that it is put in the shade a touch by the other tracks shows the strength and depth to the Spreading The Disease creative infection coursing through its companions on the EP.
Evolution brings the release to a storming close. From its first rigorous step, the track is a full-on infestation of riffs and hefty beats which is unafraid to build on its quick and bruising contagion by either spinning melodic meanders of peace or casting almost schizophrenic brawls of sonic imagination. The most exploratory song on the EP with an exotic hue to its melodic suggestiveness, the track does not neglect the band’s ability to create rancorous and debilitating ferocity neither, it all led by the great mix of throat scarring vocals and the ever primal and enticing bass of Saunders.
The track is a hellacious treat to end an excellent fuller glimpse at Spreading The Disease and their developing sound. As impressive as it is, Viral also suggests it is early days with much bigger bolder trespasses waiting to be nurtured and uncaged as the band evolves. With more of the same equally as palatable to anticipation, Spreading The Disease is looking like being another British brute equipped to breach the broadest spotlights ahead.
The Viral EP is out now at http://www.stdband.com/store.html
http://www.stdband.com/ https://www.facebook.com/spreadingthedisease.official
Pete RingMaster 12/01/2016
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
For more exploration of the independent and promotional services check out http://www.zykotika.com/
The RingMaster Review 
Leave a Reply