Posts Tagged ‘Live Laugh Loathe’

Muscle Vest – Live Laugh Loathe

Posted: 3 July 2021 in Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Prank Monkey Records – 11th June 2021

Christopher Nosnibor

The story goes that London four-piece Muscle Vest reportedly ‘formed in 2018 over a mutual appreciation for ugly rock music’, and that’s what they serve up on their debut EP – a sweaty, guitar-driven dirty rock workout that’s brimming with churning riffs, grease and grime. They come out all guns blazing and firing wildly in all directions with the manic racket of ‘Creepy Crawlie’, a juddering, angular rager that melts the best of 90s noise into a mangled metal nugget in the vein of later acts like Blacklisters and Hawk Eyes, and it very much sets the fast and furious tone for the rest of the EP: ‘Stray’ bears fair comparison to Blacklisters’ ‘Shirts’, with a throbbing riff blasting out against a low-slung bassline. If Shellac and Big Black are in the mix, so are The Jesus Lizard and early Pulled Apart by Horses.

Muscle Vest pack in a boatload of adrenaline and bring ALL the noise: it’s fucking ugly and monstrously brutal, and those are its positive points. It ain’t polished or pretty, and if you’re on the market for something gnarly, look no further.

‘We’ll all be dead / we’ll all be dead one day’ vocalist Dave Rogers howls nihilistically into a tempest of abrasive guitar noise that churns and grinds on ‘A Slow Death’. He’s right, of course: the question is whether we will die a quiet, peaceful death, or a horrible, painful one, shrieking in agony for the duration of those final hours. This is very much the soundtrack to the latter, and it’s almost enough to make death sound appealing. Because, well, better to go out screaming than to flicker out. The last track, ‘Blissbucket’ is a minute and three-quarters of blazing napalm, taking its cues from hardcore punk and tossing in all the jarring, jolting guitars that scratch and scrape at all angles across the relentlessly churning rhythm section. It’s fast and furious and brings the EP to a blistering close and then some. It positively burns with an intense fury, and it’s beautifully brutal. Gets my vote, and then some.

Cover art

AA

Watch: ‘Creepy Crawlie’ by Muscle Vest

Posted: 28 June 2021 in Recommended Streams and Videos
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

Formed in 2018 over a mutual appreciation for ugly rock music, MUSCLE VEST, have been making waves across the London alt rock scene with their brand of abrasive sardonic noise rock.

Comprised of veterans of London’s music scene (Massacres, Lull, Thunder On The Left, Bourgeois & Maurice etc.) and taking influence from bands such as Pissed Jeans, Melvins, McLusky, The Jesus Lizard and Whores, MUSCLE VEST aim to reflect the struggle of the average person against an exploitative system within a crumbling state.

After 2020’s debut EP Human Resources – described as “leading the charge for noise rock in the UK” (gbhbl.com) – MUSCLE VEST return in 2021 with follow-up EP Live Laugh Loathe, encapsulating feelings of worthlessness, anxiety and desperation endemic to modern working culture.

Like its predecessor, Live Laugh Loathe was recorded, mixed and mastered by Wayne Adams (Petbrick, Big Lad, Death Pedals) at Bear Bites Horse Studio in London.

Recorded in the final week of October 2020 under the spectre of increasingly harsh lockdown restrictions, sophomore EP Live Laugh Loathe sees Muscle Vest following in its predecessor’s footsteps, exploring oppressive elements of modern society from morals-free corporatism to toxic masculinity, cults of personality and a dash of Lovecraftian horror.

‘Creepy Crawlie’ provides a taste of the EP, and you can stream the video here:

AA

thumbnail_image002