From the voracious trespass of Afternoonified there is no hiding place for the body and emotions, no safe haven within a sludge/doom metal bred consumption of the senses from a band ready to devour far broader attention than already incited by previous releases. Afternoonified is the eagerly awaited debut album from UK quartet Victorian Whore Dogs and the next punishingly irritable and rousing exposure to the band’s self-named “Sexy Hobo Trampcore.”
The Guildford hailing and 2010 formed Victorian Whore Dogs have already whipped up potent attention and keenly offered praise through their first pair of EPs, starting with the three track rabid assault of Fetch in 2013. Fair to say, Hobo Chic two years later stirred up even greater awareness and support for the band whilst pushing their stripped back and hungrily abrasive sludge metal cored sound on again which Afternoonified now continues. The album’s eleven corrosive roars are as unashamedly raw and boldly cantankerous as ever but equally show a new creative imagination and greater resourceful design to their ravenous and invasive ferocity. It is a wake-up call to those still blind to their sonic antagonism and gripping humour lined devilry, and sure to enhance a formidable reputation already earned by the band’s live presence which has already seen them crush venues alongside the likes of Conan, Ortega, We are Knuckle Dragger, Lord Misery, and Burden of the Noose as well as the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock in 2015.
Afternoonified opens with Mutton Shunter where an initial sonic lancing quickly invites inescapably anthemic beats and caustic stabs of guitar. Their union becomes more abrasive and compelling as psyche infesting grooves from Adam Crawley seduce as they wander through ears. The-hardcore/noise seeded side of the band’s animosity soon emerges too as vocalist Danny Page uncages his throated shredding roars matched in forceful kind by the vocal squalls of bassist Andy Nuttall. The track is superb, quickly in control of attention and an eager appetite whilst being purposefully guided by the rhythms of drummer Stephen More.
Its creative animus is followed and matched by that cast by Captain Kirk Was My Favourite Stormtrooper. Straight away a web of spicy grooves and rapacious riffs unite beneath a mercurial atmosphere ablaze with the jaundiced vocal ire of Page. Like a psychotic mix of Neurosis and William English, band and track create a thick and swinging incursion of the senses finally making way for the even more antipathy toned challenge of I Have Become. The next track immediately shows an even darker and heavier gait which only becomes more intense and atmospherically tar thick as it insistently lumbers through ears on the way to spreading its cancerous hues to Murder Boner which breeds a whole new inhospitable sonic malignancy from them. Again the merciless aspects are offset by infectiously demanding rhythms and fearsome yet engagingly waspish grooves and piercing hooks; a combination resulting in a highly alluring landscape around more vocal enmity.
Both tracks commandingly stir up again the hungry focus and emotional involvement already in motion though the pair soon finds themselves eclipsed by the calmer invasive flirtation of Barrington Monroe. It’s droning elegance and fiery ambience smothers the senses whilst simultaneously invigorating them with a dark almost nagging touch and charm crawled over by the fiercely rasping vocal delivery of Page. The track beguiles as it scars, a quality found again in the far more predacious and equally enthralling (I Can’t Believe It’s) Nutbutter which stalks ears from its start before breaking into a repetitive and addictive groove veined grind/sludge metal woven grudge.
An infectious persistence of grooves and predatory rhythms shape the similarly captivating Agœcia next, the track another which seems to instinctively incite the primal wants of any slab of galvanic aural barbarism. It is admittedly, a quality gracing the whole of Afternoonified which will keenly entice those with an emotionally and sonically dissonant tooth, and repeats its success in the likes of the melodically and emotively rancorous Snatch Files and in turn the rhythmically enslaving Nååñshååg. The first of the two expels a coarsely bracing blaze whilst its successor creates a tapestry of rhythmic incitement before soaking its frame in doom fuelled sonic and vocal venom. It is another which infests the psyche and passions with little resistance whilst showing a strain of diversity which maybe not all songs as openly show but for the main hold.
The album comes to a close through the virulent feud of Southern Fried Homicide and the crawling aural malice of Sebastian Tenderhoof, another duo pushing the blend of textures and flavours to greater variety within their individual conflicts of sound and intent. Together they make for a heavily pleasing end to a thoroughly gripping and enjoyable invasion of body and spirit.
Though Afternoonified will impress those with an appetite for sludge, doom, and debilitating metal swiftly it is over numerous plays that it truly comes into its own and reveals its depth of invention and character. Victorian Whore Dogs is a band on the prowl with its finest vindictive growl about to be let off the leash.
Afternoonified is released April 1st via Hibernacula Records @ http://victorianwhoredogs.bandcamp.com/ and http://www.hibernacularecords.com/product/afternoonified-by-victorian-whore-dogs
https://www.facebook.com/VWDBAND
Dates for the Victorian Whore Dogs UK Tour:
01/04 – Reading, Facebar*
02/04 – Southampton, Firehouse *
03/04 – Portsmouth, Edge of the Wedge
07/04 – Worcester, The Pig & Drum *
08/04 – Leicester, The Firebug *
09/04 – Leeds, Bad Apples*
10/04 – Nottingham, The Running Horse *
14/04 – Bristol, Stag & Hounds +
15/04 – Cardiff, Fuel +
16/04 – London, The Black Heart +
17/04 – Brighton, The Prince Albert *
22/04 – Worthing, Bar 42
*With Morass of Molasses
+With Greenhorn and Tides of Sulfer
Pete Ringmaster 31/03/201
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
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The EP opens with its title track and initially a low key, melancholically toned guitar coaxing which is quickly joined by Haffenden’s voice. A few moments more and Tennant and Caouette bring a bulkier incitement with their rhythms, each carrying raucous intent to their catchy nature; William English meets At The Drive-In coming to mind through it all. Subsequent jazz lined weaves of guitar and moody bass shuffles only divert the creative adventure to new thrilling detours though they never meander too far from the driving compelling core of the encounter.
It is Bud Vessel which lights the touch paper to the album, its two minutes plus of vicious addictiveness an instant onslaught of barbed hooks and spicy grooves encased in fuzz soaked, snarling causticity. With mercilessly stabbing beats from drummer Joe Woodbury in the driver’s seat, the track careers through ears with the squalling hardcore tones of vocalist Shane Miller an acidic burn in the hostile and contagious smog of the song. Stoner seeded grooves spring their bait throughout too, everything colluding to ignite ears and emotions in a blaze of cancerous temptation.