EP REVIEW: Discontent – Bleach

Not even a year old, Mancunian hardcore mob BLEACH have experienced a whirlwind first six months. Having proven their worth on the touring front through sharing the stage with the likes of LOTUS EATER and CREATE TO INSPIRE. Now, the time has come for the band to capitalise on their momentum with their debut release; a four track EP titled Discontent. But does it deliver the goods?

There is no doubt, BLEACH are not holding back any of their live energy, as Eye for an Eye packs vicious breakdowns, thrashing drums and plenty of spitting vocals. The production is truly in your face, the noise seems to be living in your skin, urging you to throw down. Quick moments of respite in the drum breakdowns are well timed, before the riffs hit in again, striking between doom and groove, disjointed and heavy as anything, it’s a booming rage filled start.

Punching you straight in the face with unsettling screams of bending strings, Anguish incorporates thick bass lines that rattle through your bones, distorted vocals and tasty riff stomping around your skull all amount to a highlight on this release. There’s something tonally akin to Mick Gordon’s DOOM OST; the menacing, pulsing breakdowns, levelled with the high velocity verses, edging you into darker, more gleefully repulsive corners of your mind, where you can revel in the danger and malice.

Blending effortlessly into Reap What You Show, the momentum never stops. Chugging, dirty basslines and metallic guitars bare down on you while the barking vocals, muffled and guttural. It’s a powerfully charged record, and the breakdowns are perfectly timed, all in all decimating.

The perfect end to this beast of an EP, Social Injustice takes a real bite, the barking vocals pressing a genuine feeling of a stark reality of pain and discontentment. The guitars are relentless, the bass kicks you in the teeth without regard, and the drums batter and bruise you. It’s a dark, weighty experience, where your hairs stand on end as your muscles ache to really ruin something.

One of the most fresh and honest hardcore records to come out in recent years, the energy that is packed into Discontent is staggering. As a debut release, it leaves a tangible unrest in the air, and should ear BLEACH considerable notoriety as a band headed for big things.

Rating: 8/10

Discontent is out now via self-release.

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