CHUD – The Invalid EP

By RingMaster Review on September 17, 2021 • ( 0 )

Not to be confused with our Australian friends or any other artist similarly named, CHUD is a three piece metal band escaping from the South East of England and they have just released a must hear EP for any alt and nu-metal fan. The Invalid EP is a six track slab of madness, a venture through insanity and the unpredictable imagination of a trio infusing the best essences of those aforementioned genres in their own world of warped uniqueness.

There is very little we can reveal about CHUD or indeed actually know. As we said they are a threesome of male and female metal provocateurs with a bent for the theatrical, dramatic and creatively voracious and have just uncaged a debut that robustly demands attention as it devilishly gets under the skin whilst deviously devouring the psyche. Nu-metal fuels its devilry and heart but there is a richness of unpredictability which embraces both flavour and invention of the release and the band’s sound as a whole.

Invalid opens up with Welcome; it quite simply a radio skit like introduction to the EP with the recommendation to keep our peckers perky courtesy of Peter’s Pancakes. Then Scar Crash quickly bursts from its salutation, an electronic baiting within equally tempting atmospherics drawing ears and intrigue. Swiftly it erupts with sonic scythes across animated rhythmic trespass though calming slightly as vocals bring their invention and psychosis to the quickly growing tempest. There is a Mushroomhead meets Mudvayne essence to the track but immersed in CHUD’s own inescapable individuality in sound and character. Almost viciously infectious and invasively dramatic, the track simply inflamed an already proven appetite for nu-metal bred antics with the added ingredients of alt and avant-garde metal potent spicing.

The EP’s title track follows, Invalid glistening with sonic intrigue initially as again electronic rhythms lend greater teasing. Quickly a Korn-esque breath sweeps the track in voice and melodic temptation, the song prowling the senses as within its midst bedlam simmers. Once the tempest of invention and insanity breaks, a Ward XVI like hue adding to the creative hellishness, the track loomed over the senses and consumed the imagination to equal the impressive and addictive prowess of its predecessor.

BrA1n is next up; the track an electronic descent into further madness complete with melodic fluctuations, invasive spikes and restless dynamics. The result is one intoxicating manipulation of one’s own senses and all responses to its invasive orchestrations which at times bears a Rob Zombie meets The Prodigy fertility.

In our experience few artists truly undertake a cover track and turn the song into their own moment of individuality but CHUD certainly do with a take on the only song by The Osmonds that most will admit liking to a certain degree. Crazy Horses is devoured by the imagination and madness of the English threesome, to be delivered in a primal roar that is as virulently contagious as it is hungrily corrosive. Inescapably feral yet skilfully woven in a web of predation and stinging enterprise yet without defusing the infectious roar of the original, the track is superb if still shaded by those around it including last up IKTP!!

It too has an untamed presence aligned to open craft which swarms over the senses, every second even in its moments of relative calm chewing on the psyche and inflaming the imagination as it psychotically wraps its declaration of I Killed The President. Harassing and nagging the listening with every move and twist, each equally scathing in their creative ferocity, the track is a gripping close to one irresistible encounter.

The Invalid EP is a magnificent introduction to the aberrant world of CHUD and already the seeding to, we suspect, another addiction here lustily anticipating the band’s next diabolical move.

The Invalid EP is out now; available @ https://chuduk.bandcamp.com