01 « May « 2019 « The RingMaster Review

Going into the review of the new single from UK outfit Bait it took us by surprise just how long ago we drooled over the band’s self-titled debut album. It feels like yesterday but was at the beginning of 2017 so the fact that it still features on our just for pleasure ‘turntables’ shows how pleasurable we found it. DLP is destined to join that compelling full-length, the track a wonderfully nagging and rousing slice of the band’s unpredictable and riveting sonic imagination.

Southend based Bait first tempted almost taunted us with a track upon the Alternative Occupations EP from Cool Thing Records which featured four of its striking bands. The intrigue and appetite the song bred was richly fed by the debut Bait album, addictively satisfied by the unique fusion of punk, post punk, and industrial espionage which thrilled within. So you can imagine the tingle when the band’s vocalist/songwriter Michael Webster got in touch with their latest track. Of course there are never guarantees, expectations and assumptions always there to be shot down but not this time. DLP was another addiction in the waiting and a big excuse for us to again push you all towards the creative exploits of Mike, Luke Branch, Jim Webster, and M R E.

Synths instantly mark their territory as DLP takes a mere breath to calmly entice, its second exhalation springing a rapacious but inviting stroll impossible to prevent hips and neck muscles responding too. There is an inherent darkness and threat to it all though, that delicious niggle which has marked previous tracks from the band and simply accentuates all the hues and manipulative agility of the song.

At times it calls on ears and imagination like a tenebrific blend of Malicious Damage era Killing Joke, Dalek I/Dalek I Love You, and Nine Inch Nails, but with bleakness as radiant as it is dissonant. Even with those clues to their characters, song and sound are fiercely unique to Bait and barely come close to any true comparisons.

DLP is another invigorating and galvanic outing with Bait, an experience which challenges and rewards, questions and supports with unapologetic eagerness. If you have not checked out this band shame on you, the perfect moment though is now.

DLP is out now via Cool Thing Records.

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Pete RingMaster 01/05/2019

The Condemned To Repeat EP brings together two of the UK’s most promising, indeed already exciting metal prospects and across rousing ear gripping tracks shows why both are creating a real buzz.

The release sees South London metallers Deference and Southampton outfit Vanity provide two tracks each of their increasingly individual sounds. It is an encounter springing from the idea of a prospective collaboration between both bands which Deference members, vocalist Rob Lea and vocalist/guitarist Matt Dennison, offered forward late 2017. Vanity guitarist Luke Jervis explains, “We decided against creating a hybrid band between the two but wanted to focus more on the initial project of creating music as a collective.” The four tracks do see the vocalists of each band sharing vocal duties in each other’s offerings though to add to the open adventure of the release.

Deference provides the first pair of songs, starting things off with Sins. The band has seen their melodic metal constantly lure a host of new fans particularly from sharing stages with the likes of Bless The Fall, Miss May I, Fit For A King, Currents, Rolo Tomassi and Napoleon in recent times. Their first track initially coaxes ears with a suggestive melody, a calm but potent lure soon joined by the carnivorous textures of Dennison and Jonathan Prince’s guitars. Rhythms are less eager but resonate with every growl of Shaun Kirtland’s bass and the swinging attack of drummer Mike Hill, until it all boils over in a rousing roar. Even then there is a certain control to the eruption, a creative prowess which perfectly aligns to the growing vocal spread of enterprise. Drama soaks every note unveiled as too rich imagination, the track giving hints as to why the band has been compared to the likes of Architects and Northlane.

Their second track is just as compelling, Burial a voracious slab of discontent and creative fury strapped with hungry grooves and rapier thrusting rhythms. It is a sonic wrath tempered by an atmospheric sigh and turbulence interrupting melodic flames, a song never settling or allowing the listener to before its tempestuous roar and like its companion hits the spot right on but the second unleashes an especially inventive spleen impossible to resist.

It is the same with the two incitements from Vanity, a band which has already excited our appetites as many others through the Perspective//Dread and Perspective//Empathy EPs a couple of years or so back. They too have made their mark on the European live scene, playing with bands such as We Came As Romans, Chelsea Grin, Thy Art Is Murder, Black Tongue and I Killed The Prom Queen. Humane is first up from the quintet, emerging from an atmospheric mist with a rich wiring of grooves and a hellacious web of vocal ire. Swiftly the song expands its sonic lures and suggestive atmosphere, unpredictability joining volatility in the breath and heart of the increasingly enthralling trespass as all the while it preys on ears with growing dexterity, stalking the senses to share fear and pleasure.

Disillusioned is equally predatory as it completes the line-up, the track crawling over the listener with carnal intent whilst equally providing a magnetic blend of vocal adventure and melodic intimation. Again, the invasion never follows expectations, every second and breath bringing fresh challenge borne of real imagination to arouse and captivate.

Condemned To Repeat is an outstanding incursion from two bands which so far are only growing more striking and thrilling by the release and declaring UK metal is in exciting hands.

The Condemned To Repeat EP is available now.