E.P. Review: Weston Super Maim - 180 Degree Murder
Reviewed by Paul Hutchings
There are varying degrees of extreme but the debut release from the transatlantic duo of Tom Stevens and US-based Seth Detrick (of LA based PDP) is one savage mutha.
With numerous styles curled tightly into this hard balled two-track E.P., it’s a challenge to put a label onto the band. Indeed, why should you. The base line is that it is at times ferociously heavy, with Meshuggah type angular time signatures, the abstract progressiveness of Car Bomb combined with the concrete welding riffage of Crowbar. It’s simply brutal. And yet, there’s a haunting, eerie feel to it with blasts of melody and more gentle passages that strangely juxtapose comfortably. In particular, the longer of the two tracks, the nine-minute ‘We Need to Talk About Heaven’ ebbs and flows with a fluidity that belies the expected impact.
Detrick was approached by Stevens to contribute vocals on the release and whilst it’s been sometime in the making, with the pieces refined during the pandemic. His vocals fit snuggly into the technical groove driven elements that combine with base level heaviness and those snatches of melody that add peace and harmony to the intense power that crushes in other parts.
I understand that the E.P. is on “one hand a disdainful take on the state of contemporary society and collective human behaviour, with a healthy apocalyptic vibe. On another, it has a more complex, introspective element, with the epic sections of the music offering a counterpoint to the nihilism in the lyrics”. What is for sure, this is an interesting and fresh piece of work that is unlike much of the music you’ll listen to for the rest of 2021. Abstract for definite, but quite compelling in a way I cannot really describe.
