With a piece of truly excellent cover art accompanying their new record Circle Of Death that shows that there are only 5 stages in life between your birth and being engulfed by the flames of Hell, it’s clear that Ohio’s Homewrecker haven’t found much to cheer them up in the years since 2012’s explosive and expansive Worms and Dirt LP. Indeed, with a slimmed down line-up and a streamlined sound, Homewrecker are perhaps more punishing and merciless now than ever.
If you’re coming to Circle Of Death expecting a natural progression from their debut two years ago then you may be slightly disappointed. Worms and Dirt was a murky and bleak set of compositions; an almost strangulating collection that saw Homewrecker thrust their hands into a melting pot of influences and emerge with a sound that was part thuggish hardcore and part death metal grunt, all the while held together by bursts of grindcore speed.
With this new record, however, Homewrecker have stripped things back; boiled their sound down to its essence. Compared to a band like Code Orange, whose recently released King LP was a further step into hardcore’s future, Homewrecker are almost primordial. This, though, is where their power lies. In stripping away any excess meat from their bones they’ve arrived at a solid sound that harks back to 80’s crossover but one infused with a modern, devastating heaviness. Or, in other words, Best Wishes-era Cro Mags, but infinity times louder. You dig?
So, while their sound might not be particularly new, it is undoubtedly what they do with it that counts. And what they do is proceed to hammer at your speakers like a feral beast attempting to escape captivity. At 9 tracks and 20 minutes long, Circle Of Death rushes past in a blur, Homewrecker never letting up for a second. Blistering solos peal from guitars at lightspeed amid a constant assault from some incredibly inventive drumming and a thick, meaty guitar tone; grunted, monosyllabic vocals barked out over the top. And when they do drop the pace for a thundering breakdown, like on ‘Punish The Ignorant‘, it doesn’t take too much of an imagination to picture the carnage that will ensue when that gets played live. Homewrecker stand as proof that in this age of constant progression, sometimes it’s equally as impressive to hear a band simplify their sound and re-emerge with a stronger identity than before and brandishing a new record that will flatten you.
Released on 31st October by A389 Recordings. Grab the vinyl from here.
New Comments