EP REVIEW: Impale – ‘‘Failstate‘

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The debut EP from Leeds’ Hardcore band Impale is a short sharp thunderous blast of shock and awe. We are talking four songs in less than 7 1⁄2 minutes, yep you read that right.

Opening track ‘Failstate’ is a slow burner; ominous stalking guitars, For 48 glorious seconds it grinds But this is just the casual listeners take on the track; for there are subtle touches of guitar sound, drums and vocals. It’s just an appetiser. ‘Bury Us *6 Feet Deep)’ is a rush of guitar, drums and those thrilling changes of speed. It’s raw but Impale bring us something new; in all that rawness there is nuance. There is astounding guitar that pierces the rush of sound.

And then there is the full on sonic attack of ‘Saw’. Full on guitar, full on vocals. This is a, if you accept this as a description, heavier, denser.

In a way ‘Sleep’ is the culmination of the three proceeding tracks. It brings in the grind, the hammering riffs. There’s the subtle touches of out of control guitar, the pounding of bass and drums. This is a nightmare-ish sleep.

OK so reviewing hardcore bands is hard. We all know what hardcore sounds like, but what marks out a hardcore band is the differences not the similarities. What Impale do to stake their claim is to bring nuance to their sound.Yep part of that is the grindcore element to their sound, but there’s more to it than that. It’s the, dare I say it, clever and unexpected touches of sound that sit in amongst the sonic attack, the space inside the denseness that allows a small but exquisite guitar sound to stand out.

This EP is a marker, a signal to us, that Impale have something different, bring something different. If you’re into any sort of noisy guitar rock, crank this loud.

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Frank is the website guy for Local Sound Focus. Takes a lot of photos and loves writing about new music.