Album Review: Pist - Hailz
Reviewed by Neil Brannagan-Fuller
There’s a lot of doom about at the moment, no I don’t mean in the streets and on the news. Doom, Sludge, Stoner etc every local and not so local gig seems to have at least one band on the bill that’s playing their slight twist on the genre, tortured slow bass lines, drawn out Ozzy’esqe vocals and full fuzz effect guitars, I’m sure you can all name some both good and bad!
And upon pressing play, the opening chords of Lancashire’s Pist second full length album, Hailz, made me think I was in for more of the same genre stereotypical content. But I was proved pleasantly wrong! After the introduction of psychedelic stoner metal at the start of opener ‘Ex-Nihilo’ the doom suddenly retreats with the harsh sung verse before breaking into throat ripping black metal vocals, reminiscent of early Cradle of Filth.
The following tracks continue to push the boundaries of what is expected, mixing up the styles and influences, ‘Wreck’ is a punk tinged slow thrash number and tracks like ‘Mind Rotter’ have elements of a more traditional rock band about them, but ‘If I was you’ retains a more melodic black metal sound and ‘Strangle The Sun’ has a full on doom feel about it!
So whilst this style hoping sounds really random in print, in reality the mix of rock and black metal vocals, the doom laden bass and drums, the black metal and punk guitars all mesh together to make a concise and well thought out track list that hangs together as a really cohesive album
So maybe the roots of Hailz are in the doom genre, but they have transcended from the norm, these guys have got their own sound that should push them ahead of the traditional doom and stoner crowd and this album could possibly deliver just that result!
Pist release 'Hailz' on November 8th via APF Records
