Mastiff - Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth

 

I've never been that into chuggy breakdowns in hardcore for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. When I was coming up, it felt like two out of every three bands put out albums that were mostly just jud-jud style mosh part after jud-jud style mosh part for 25 minutes straight. I tended, on the other hand, to gravitate towards fast, chaotic hardcore or sludgy riffs. As such, the chuggy breakdowns never did it for me.

Even I have to admit, though, that Mastiff has really cracked the code on this genre. 

If I were to theorize why I like this record so much, despite it being on the far end of chuggy for what I normally listen to, I would say the following: (1) It rules, and you can't argue with good. (2) A lot of the bands, historically, that pile breakdown on top of breakdown tend to be pretty clean. You know the sound I mean: scooped guitar tones, tight and technical playing, that sort of thing. Mastiff, on the other hand, brings a much darker aesthetic to their breakdown-laced hardcore. Clearly influenced by crust, sludge, grind, and black metal, Mastiff overwhelm you with noisy chaos, closer to something like Wake or Fange than the typical metalcore band. The churning, raw, pummeling quality of this record really gives it an urgent vibe, perfectly capturing the feeling of seeing a loud band in a cramped, sweaty basement somewhere. Mastiff really raise the bar on this sort of hardcore, and I would highly recommend giving this record a listen.


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