MASTIFF: Premiere “Repulse” Video From UK Blackened Sludge Bringers

[Photo by Stewart Baxter]

 

“…the track sits somewhere between metallic hardcore of the Merauder variety and the sludgy heft of The Acacia Strain. It’s the type of music that’s bound to test the stability of a venue’s floorboards, because it’s just one thudding, hurling riff and/or breakdown after another.” — Revolver

UK five-piece MASTIFF today unveils their new video for “Repulse.” Now playing at Revolver Magazine, the track comes by way of the band’s devastating Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth full-length, set to drop on September 10th via Entertainment One.

 

Crafted in just five days at No Studio with producer Joe Clayton (Pijn, Wren, Leeched), Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth is the band’s third full-length and a true misanthropic masterpiece. The sorrow-filled souls of every miserable cretin it reaches will stir in basements, hovels, pubs, and darkened alleyways. Conceived during a pandemic-enforced longest stretch between MASTIFF records, the album paints on the band’s familiar canvas, but with a far larger palette than ever before.

 

“Repulse” is the second single off Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth. The track bleeds apathy and disgust, grinding and churning through sludge inspired verses layered with dissonant guitar work. “Repulse” erupts with a bludgeoning breakdown, expanding into areas of doom and death metal. The coinciding video was created by the Hinterland Creative collective in Hull and directed by Matt Molson and Luke Hallett.

 

Issues the band, “‘Repulse’ was a song that we started writing fairly early on in the process of putting Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth together, and in some ways is maybe the most ‘traditional’ MASTIFF song on the album, in the sense that it’s a swirling tornado of sludge-fuelled metalcore with a big, obnoxious breakdown at the end. It was important that we had something that acted as a bridge between ‘Plague’ and ‘Leave Me…’, though we’d definitely say this is a more refined take on that sound, and might be the closest to ‘catchy’ we’re ever likely to get.

 

“We’re not the most politically charged band out there, but ‘Repulse’ is a direct reaction to spineless, self-serving world leaders like the one we’re currently being forced to suffer in the UK, and the orange-faced nightmare our transatlantic friends just escaped from.

 

‘Repulse’ also marks the first time MASTIFF has ever attempted any kind of narrative in one of our promo videos, and also the first time we’re ever let our mask of sullen misery slip to reveal that we’re actually a set of silly boys who like to make people laugh as much as grimace. We hope that hasn’t spoiled the mystique for too many people!”

 

Adds Revolver, “the track sits somewhere between metallic hardcore of the Merauder variety and the sludgy heft of the Acacia Strain. It’s the type of music that’s bound to test the stability of a venue’s floorboards, because it’s just one thudding, hurling riff and/or breakdown after another.”

View MASTIFF’s “Repulse” video at Revolver HERE.

 

View MASTIFF’s previously released video for first single, “Endless,” HERE.

 

Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Find preordering options at THIS LOCATION.

 

MASTIFF will bring their odes of antipathy to stages this Fall on a short UK run with Calligram. See all confirmed dates below:

 

MASTIFF w/ Calligram:

10/26/2021 The Anvil – Bournemouth, UK

10/27/2021 Black Heart – London, UK

10/28/2021 Satan’s Hollow – Manchester, UK

10/29/2021 Opium – Edinburgh, UK

10/30/2021 SOAR – Nottingham, UK

10/31/2021 Record Junkee – Sheffield, UK

 

Forged in 2014, MASTIFF’s unique combination of blackened sludge, grindcore, and powerviolence creates a bleak and chaotic atmosphere, sounding as if the spawn of Crowbar, This Is Hell, and Napalm Death composed an album inside the Lake Of Fire. The unrelenting, brutish curmudgeon aura of MASTIFF can be deceptive however, as bright sparks of nuance and jarring adventurousness lurk behind every riff, rumble, and anguished, painstaking bellow stitching together a soundtrack suitable for betrayal, depression, self-loathing, and total despair, with winking, devilish glee. The bulldozing din of MASTIFF is akin to the catharsis in setting something aflame just to watch it burn.

 

A pair of early EP outbursts summoned a furious fuzzed-out thunder, reminiscent of the sludgy bar room brawl rock favored in New Orleans, with shades of the darkness cloaking fellow English bands of the doomier variety. Wrank (2016) and the Bork EP (2017) furthered the despair and paranoia.

And then sophomore album Plague blew the damn doors down. Recorded live-in-the-studio in just two days, Plague demonstrated MASTIFF’s seamless shapeshifting from harsh noise to blackened hardcore and back again. The sludge still seeped from the foundations, like a foul stench from under the floorboards. Despite the raw recording setting, MASTIFF somehow sounded more polished and less restrained at the same time. A slew of stark raving reviews from sometimes disgust-adverse tastemakers like Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, and Metal Injection symbolized MASTIFF’s momentum.

MASTIFF put their open-wound sound and spirit on display at shows with Crowbar, Biohazard, Conjurer, Cult Leader, and Iron Monkey, among others. They’ve proved adept and capable at delivering devastating performances with a diverse cross-section of heavy acts and their respective audiences. Festival appearances propelled the band’s miserable might, deepening a nascent cult status.

 

MASTIFF:  

Jim Hodge – vocals

James Andrew Lee – guitar

Phil Johnson – guitar

Dan Dolby – bass

Michael Shepherd – drums

 

For MASTIFF coverage contact liz@earsplitcompound.com.