ALBUM REVIEW: Pylon Cult – Praetorian
Since 2017, when it was first spewed forth into the world by the gods of very heavy metal, UK underground label APF Records has gone from strength to strength, releasing some of the nastiest extreme music of recent years like MASTIFF, SWAMP COFFIN and TIDES OF SULFUR have pushed the heavy envelope, excreting grim, filthy sludge-infused death, doom and black metal, thick with horrible riffs and throat-ripping vocals.
Label boss Andrew Field has a real ear for crushingly powerful music and his latest signing PRAETORIAN is proof that he isn’t mellowing into middle age. Like many of their label mates, this is a group of musicians who prove on this, their full-length debut, that they are unafraid to face up to the many horrors of modern life in Britain, albeit with their tongues firmly in their cheeks. Hailing from Hertfordshire, this quartet are here to show that, as grim as it may be up North, things aren’t exactly any perkier down South. Opening with the blistering Fear And Loathing In Stevenage, the band has their collective pedal to the metal as soon as the ear-slitting feedback that introduces the album comes to an end and the DISCHARGE-esque battering ram that is the drumming of Andrew Bisgrove takes over. This is a brutal slice of screaming blackened sludge which turns in on itself for the final minute, imploding in a crawling, cacophonous doom coda. Follow-up Chain Of Dead Command takes a slower but no less apocalyptic approach, opening with clean, melodic guitars which descend into a verse that opens up part way through into an almighty groove that wouldn’t sound out of place in the catalogue of fellow APF Records brutalists BATALLIONS.
Pylon Cult is an incredibly challenging listen but it isn’t all breakneck battery. There are moments of post-rock introspection, grooves that swing and bounce courtesy of drummer Bisgrove and bassist Richard Stevenson, riffs that go from jagged to crunching and back again from Mark Wilkie and vocals from Tom Clements that range between brain-piercing shrieks and bowel-shaking grunts. Holding it all together is the fizzing production of Wayne Adams who has captured the urgent energy of the band while still holding on to the space in the music so it never just feels like a wall of noise beating you over the head.
Tombs Of The Blind Dregs is a great example of how well produced this record is, sounding as powerful as Endtyme-era CATHEDRAL if that band had been as into death metal as they were doom. The haunting, melodic backing vocals of Stevenson add another layer to this epic album highlight, running in at seven and a half minutes and journeying through a whole dimension of bleak twists and turns. Remnants Of Head is similarly labyrinthine, ambitious and experimental without resorting to any one particular formula. As disgusting as it is satisfying, Pylon Cult is an incredibly powerful album that should find its way into the collection of any self-respecting fan of the likes of MASTIFF, IRON MONKEY and WALLOWING. An impressive combination of genres that still feel like it’s doing something new and another absolute winner for APF Records and the UK extreme metal underground.
Rating: 8/10
Pylon Cult is available now via APF Records
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