Hailing from the same part of the world as Brutality Will Prevail, I’ve witnessed the band’s ascension from the toilet circuit of South Wales to the European festival arena. The talent was always there and even after huge line-up changes, they managed to retain that element, but now in 2019 we have a band that are more focused and finally reaching the heights they deserve to be at. Misery Sequence, incredibly, is the bands 6^th studio album and sees the band pushing the boundaries a little bit more, while being mindful of their bread and butter sound.

The whole album has an epic feel about it, with massive soundscapes dominating the record. Twisting The Knife would be a perfect example of this. A huge doomy number with Rhys Fulber style keyboards, leading into the crushing heaviness of Deny The Truth which shows that the guys can still write a raging Hardcore tune when called upon, but even here there are shades of early Neurosis to be heard. The soundscape/heavy number formula is used again with Unsettling serving as an intro to the death metal riffing of Sense of Doubt. Counterparts vocalist Brendan Murphy lends his vocals to End Of Me a track that builds into an Andre The Giant size heavy riff to finish with. The biggest curve ball on the album and the one which will really get the Hardcore BWP fans (how dare they try something new) in a tizzy is Breathless. A beautifully modern and brooding heavy metal track complete with haunting female vocals. Fear not though boneheads, there is a suitably slamming finale to end the album-the appropriately titled Bitter End

What we have here is a band who know their fan base but at the same time aren’t afraid to mess with the formula either. It sounds like Nasty fighting with old school Fear Factory at times and could be one of those albums that’s looked upon as years to come, as the point where Hardcore finally left puberty behind, much like Code Orange’s recent output. But some people don’t like to grow up and it will be interesting to see how Misery Sequence is received. For my money it’s a brave record that the band should be applauded for that will hopefully see them take that leap to the next level… Chris Andrews