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The delightfully monikered Hang The Bastard hail from ye olde London town and have been knocking around since 2007 when they originally based their sound in hardcore, but over the last few years they have moved on to heavier RIFF based sounds while gaining momentum with ferocious live shows, which second album proper Sex In The Seventh Circle hopes to build on.
And it will as ‘Keeping Vigil’ certainly doesn’t waste any time in getting acquainted after a brief acoustic passages is abruptly kicked aside by monstrous bludgeoning heavy stoner RIFFS that get an almightily serious groove on, it’s almost a perfect example of the genre except for the vocals that opt for a screechy black metal approach (apparently attempting to channel Kvelertak), that might work for some people, but definitely doesn’t for me. Happily this does not impose itself over the music as Hang The Bastard wisely allow the RIFFS to do the shouting as well as blistering guitar solos and all of this is backed up by an impressively colossal sounding production.
This is no one trick pony as the bass heavy sludge workout of ‘Morss Tempest’ and the heavily Down inspired ‘Hornfel’ keeps the momentum rolling resulting in an impressive three track opening salvo.
The minor interlude of ‘The Lesser Key’ acts as a bridge to the gear change that is the lurching slow motion doom of ‘The Majestic Gathering of Goetia’ and the clean vocal’s blues of ‘Mist Of Albion’ that are interesting change of pace amongst the thundering RIFFS that surround them as ‘Sex in the Seventh Circle’ kicks back into up tempo and also includes an odd little moment where the track fades out and back into itself as a separate track ‘Snake Symbol’.
The final three track salvo of ‘Absorption’, ‘Beyond the Pale’ and ‘Sweet Mother’ finish proceedings in a blaze of stomping fuzzy stoner blues glory.
