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...