EP REVIEW: Bestial Curse Part 1 – Something Animal
French chaotic hardcore quintet SOMETHING ANIMAL bring a lot of great bands to mind within the 16-minute runtime of their new EP Bestial Curse Part 1. Within seconds of opener Rats they evoke THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN to an uncanny degree, although it is actually the likes of EVERY TIME I DIE, THE CHARIOT and even some You Come Before You era POISON THE WELL (minus the clean vocals) that prove more accurate comparisons as the record goes on. Anyone with a working set of ears should know that all of those are very good things, the challenge of course being whether the Parisians can step out of the sizable shadows cast by such a fantastic set of influences.
43% Burnt-isms of the first ten seconds or so of the aforementioned opener aside, SOMETHING ANIMAL definitely at least make a go of being their own, uh, animal. The thing they’re best at is something a bit more rocking and riff-heavy, the band clearly happy just to let a groove be a groove rather than hacking away at every other measure as seems to be the approach of many others operating in a similar field. Obviously this is where a reference to a band like ETID feels particularly apt, but when a track like Dove or Bird kicks into one of their absolutely massive riffs the effect is hard to deny regardless of how well you may have heard it done before.
Those two tracks are probably the highlights, mainly for the reasons mentioned, but everything on Bestial Curse is solid. Second track Hyena kicks into more of a frantic D-beat at first but ends up standing out more for its anthemic chorus that offers a decent glimpse of something the band could look at taking a bit further whenever Part 2 rolls around, while closer L.I.O.N. gets climactic and ferocious and thunderous enough that listeners should be able to forgive the whiff of cheese that comes with vocalist Daz’s roars of “I’m a fucking lion”.
To be fair as well, Daz actually proves to be another piece in the puzzle that helps SOMETHING ANIMAL at least begin to stand apart from some of their influences and contemporaries, his distinctive bellow adding a real weight to the band’s sound where many others go for something screamier and scrappier. It’s all very promising stuff and even if it is easy enough to guess who SOMETHING ANIMAL’s favourite bands might be they do at least put things together in a way that doesn’t feel entirely derivative, and no doubt with a little further refinement they could produce some really great sequels to this already strong first instalment.
Rating: 7/10
Bestial Curse Part 1 is set for release on February 2nd via self-release.
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