The fact that switched on music savvy, scene dwelling cats often equate power with raging thrash, grindcore and down tuned sinew snapping metal-core is kind of indicative of the blinkered and sometimes narrow minded age that we live in .Don’t get me wrong, those genres have kicked out, and continue to produce, some awe-inspiring bands, but they’re not soley responsible for producing bands that are so damn heavy their music bends your bones and crushes you cranium.  Some bands don’t need to be part of a scene and don’t have to ally themselves with a genre in order to pound you into submissive acquiescence.

Rope are one of those bands. Which means that they’re destined to walk a long, lonely road that’ll occasionally see them pausing to dwell in recognised musical territory for the briefest of respites, before continuing their singular journey.  But like the Pied Piper of Hamlin before them, Rope entrance all who are fortunate enough to become ensnared by their devastating dirge that fuses 16, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Big Black and Hey Colossus and Come Closer Now is a testament to unique world view, and is a raw, blistering, emotionally charged, juggernaut of an album. It’s a record that repeatedly beats its listener into oblivion with its fraught, driving rhythms and its howling vocals that lay bare the fragile secrets that are usually hidden in the darkest recesses of the heart and question the cold and capricious nature of an uncaring Universe.  And it is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the heaviest, most uncompromising and original records that I’ve heard in a long, long time. Magnificent…  Tim Cundle