Mastiff: On The Precipice
It is both lovely and relatively common in this line of work that you find the nastiest of music is made by the nicest of people. Listen to the new MASTIFF record Deprecipice and you’ll hear vocalist Jim Hodge bellowing pleasantries like “Hang them high / Let them rot” and “Fuck this world / Let it burn” atop his bandmates’ festering mass of sludgy grindy metallic hardcore, for example; but chat to him about that same record – as we did over Zoom back in February – and you’ll find a humble, honest and all-round top bloke who’s clearly quite bemused that anyone is interested in his “horrible little band”.
“Because we’re from Hull we don’t believe our own bullshit,” he smiles. “If somebody else says we’re great that’s up to them; that’s fucking ace, I love it, but it still knocks me a bit for six!”. Of course, that is what a lot of people have been saying about MASTIFF for a while now, especially since the release of Deprecipice’s 2021 predecessor Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth. It was the first time the five-piece really spent a decent chunk of time on more than just the writing of the record – 2019’s Plague before it was recorded and mixed in just two days, for example – and such efforts made for a tough act to follow.
“Leave Me The Ashes left quite a large crater really,” explains Hodge. “I fell foul of almost worrying too much about it, because the majority of my lyrics have been mined over the years and this one came along and you sometimes wonder if people have heard enough about my story or whatever. I was trying not to repeat myself, but then I found myself almost thinking bollocks to it. Some of the wounds that I have written about will never close up, so it’s a case of sometimes you’ve just got to go over it again, not from a different angle, but you just sort of word it differently.”
“I know people use cathartic a lot, and I don’t find it cathartic,” he continues when pressed on whether he finds any relief or release in such a process. “Whether it’s me being weird or wired differently, I don’t get it. It doesn’t get anything off my chest, it doesn’t get rid of anything, it’s always gonna be there… Hopefully it helps other people. I think that’s the way I use it, whether it does or not.”
Admittedly when it comes to the music Hodge has somewhat more sinister intentions. “That horrible sick feeling in the bottom of your gut from how fucking heavy it is,” he grins when asked what he’d like listeners to take away from Deprecipice. “My bandmates have written something horrendous for me to shout over… I want people to go ‘fuck me, that is horrible, that is horrendous’ – that’s what I want in the nicest possible way, and I know it’s probably a cliché and I’m sure people have said before but I really do enjoy making people feel that stinkface [and going] ‘fuck me that’s rancid’.”
They certainly had a few of those reactions when they found themselves opening for Swedish metallers AVATAR last year – an unlikely pairing to say the least but nonetheless an experience of which Hodge speaks very fondly. “AVATAR took a chance with five knobheads who’ve never been out of the country and they were amazing… I’m not just blowing smoke up their arse but they were just the nicest fucking people. The crew were ace and their fans took us on board and it did honestly open my eyes and ears to not be a metal snob; don’t close shit off before you listen to it and give it a chance.”
Of course, any such opportunities – and indeed any accolades that have come the band’s way in recent years – are hard fought, though Hodge remains characteristically down to earth about it. “We’re just more popular with people I guess,” he elaborates. “It’s a long bloody slog – Christ, every band you speak to probably works their bollocks off. There’s very few that get an instant overnight massive fanbase – not that we’ve got a massive fanbase – and I think you probably suffer getting a fanbase overnight, I think you could believe your own shit then, but we’re old boys, we don’t believe the hype. We’re the most self-resenting band in the world, we’re just like ‘nah, people aren’t on about us, they can’t be’, and when we get an offer for some festival like a Damnation or a Bloodstock, we’re like ‘have you got the right MASTIFF!?’.”
The band themselves might not see it, but the rest of the world – or at least the rest of a particular niche of the extreme music scene – does; MASTIFF are bloody great at what they do and Deprecipice is another truly outstanding slice of the most miserable music you’ll ever hear. If there is a next level for a band like this it should take them to it, but as you’d expect Hodge and co. are happy just to be along for the ride. “A self-depreciating band like us we’re just glad that we get anybody to talk to us, so nothing much has changed particularly other than it’s just harder to stay above everybody else because there’s so many other good bloody bands now. We just do what we do, we enjoy what we do, and people seem to have bitten into this horrible biscuit that we’re selling.”
Deprecipice is out now via MNRK Heavy.
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