Released by: Self release
Genre: Hard rock / metal
Release date: 19 February 2018
Line up:
Vocals / Guitars – Bear
Drums – Joe Gilbey
Guitar – Andy Nevitt
Bass Guitar – Luke Prince
Tracklist:
- Intro (Instrumental)
- Worthless
- HAFGUFA
- Through Smoke, Comes Fire
With a heavy, dark tone, Thuum’s debut EP makes me consider how bleak life must be on the UK’s south coast.
The first track, handily named Intro (Instrumental), set the tone for this Sludge based EP. Although it is not sludge, it is Sludge, Metal, Doom, Thrash and any other genre of Metal you can think of thrown into a big cauldron, possibly on the beach at Bournemouth during winter solstice, and emerging from it is a technically tight, well produced EP. The fact that Intro is almost 6 minutes long doesn’t even cross my mind as I am swept away by the doomy beats into a dark misty cavern.
Inside this Cavern is Worthless, and despite its name, this track is far from it. 7 Minutes plus of heavy headbanging beats, with long instrumentals that allow each musician to show off their prowess. Bear’s vocals compliment the heavy track perfectly, only coming in when needed, and not overdoing it.
HAFGUFA is the moshpit song of the EP. At 4mins this high energy track has more vocals than the previous 2 tracks, and is not just growling, there is also a bit of singing, althought not Cory Taylor standard of singing, but passable for a developing band.
The EP finishes with the title track, Through Smoke, Comes Fire. This track shows the variety of genres that Thuum are covering with their music, being more Thrash than the Doom that the EP opened with. This track clearly shows the influence from Metallica that Thuum cite as well as an influence.
If I had heard this EP without knowing that it was a debut, I would have been wondering where the rest of the album was as it appears the guys in Thuum know exactly what they are doing and are doing it well. I shall continue to listen to this as often as I can and look forward to their next release.
SCORE: 8/10
Reviewed by Kalli Isborne
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