EP REVIEW: Who Taught You To Hate? – Animal Shithouse

You might not have heard of Tunbridge Wells but it’s home to some better known punk acts like SOFT PLAY and LADYBIRD, two acts that the over-excited ANIMAL SHITHOUSE found a fountain of inspiration in. It could be satire or an attempt to be overly shocking but it’s clear that ANIMAL SHITHOUSE aim to leave an impression even if it isn’t the best one.

Their debut EP Who Taught You To Hate? jumps between amp-blowing levels of noise — or just poorly utilised saturation — that refuses to let up for the most part and spoken word tracks that will raise your skin with a cringe. Downing A Red Stripe And Punching An Old Lady Called Penny opens up the EP with the mentioned blistering noise; with full throttle they scream about having a rowdy night. That rowdy subject tries too hard though, it indulges into the shock factor way too far, it’s a state of confusion you might not recover from for the following tracks — fingers crossed. Oh wait, it’s time for an awfully timed spoken word track Snowing In March with a backing track that makes you feel that at any minute you will be axe murdered — which would be really interesting if the rest of the six tracks weren’t fast-paced roller coasters. 

For some reason 2:53 is just one-minute of vocalist BM Martin stepping into the shoes of a man that is mainly seeking validation from “birds” and flows into narcissistic rambles. Who Taught You To Hate? supposedly aims to observe the irony and violence in the punk scene, that’s great, but if you’re just indulging in that attitude from an ironic point of view you aren’t making the point that you think you are, you’re just perpetuating a problem behind a thin veneer of satire. Closing track Enemy is loud and fast, full of vocals and a liberating volume, letting loose for a stormy ender to the EP.

There’s an irony in observing the irony that ANIMAL SHITHOUSE do and it’s difficult to discern whether they do that knowingly. It’s unfortunate since sonically there’s a lot of potential there to be nurtured but quite clearly nobody there to do the nurturing of four very excitable guys. With some development the Tunbridge Wells quartet could end up with some satisfying material, but not yet. 

Rating: 4/10

Who Taught You To Hate? is out now via Lockjaw Records.

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