Returning for a new lashing, London’s Aghast! are almost the epitome of sonic brutality. With three new tracks and a host of remixes the new EP Something Else; Something Rotten is an absolute blast of a release from start to finish.
The hook laden new tracks are insanely catchy and intensely moshable. Throwing the heavy load first into the foray these songs tireless embody what it means to slay. In combining death with it’s distant cousin melodic death metal, Aghast! are not just progressing as a band but pushing the boundaries of what can be done with metal.
Especially the remixes. If the first three tracks aren’t violent enough to subjugate your opinion then the remixes will obliterate your mind, being the most intense industrial revolution since Fear Factory’s Remanufacture. They smelt metal and D&B into a new super alloy where these remixes come in hot, sharp and radioactive, and turn the catchy riffs into a fallout of heavier rhythms.
Aghast! demonstrate what can be done with a shitload of talent and a smorgasbord of influences. Turning a series of majorly attractive guitar tracks into a hail of gristle that’s got a lot of chew on is no easy feat but Aghast! riffs take to the remixes like galvanized steel. Reinforcing an already strong structure with a shiny new coat.
This is one hell of a release from a band that’s now at least a decade old. It’s strong almost djent song structure melds perfectly with the context of D&B but even the original tracks with more of a live feel hold their own. The hooks and intense rhythms are multiplied to the power of metal on the aptly titled Something Else; Something Rotten making for an absolute blast complete with many sensational tracks.
9/10
