Hang The Bastard – Hang The Bastard E.P

Hang The Bastard have returned with another slice of ritual sacrifice and devil worship in musical form. Following on from their most recent LP, Hellfire Reign, this self-titled EP picks up where the band left off.

Hang The Bastard have taken a more metal route with the EP moving away ever so slightly from the hardcore edge that Hellfire Reign had. This in no way takes away from the heaviness of the music, every song is still bursting with riffs designed purely to incite limb breaking mosh pits and head banging to the extreme.

The best example of this metal injection is on the Intro track which combines tribal drumming with buzzing guitars to create a feel of bands such as Sepultura at their most primal. The riff that closes out the Intro sounds like Slayer pumped full of hardcore energy as the riff pumps out pure metal heaviness.

‘Interplanetary Portals’ follows in a similar vein with the metal riffing carrying on to the absolute maximum. It must be said that vocalist Chris produces his strongest performance to date on this self titled EP, his vocals are the exact blend of raw delivery and understandable aggression that you want to hear, it ensures you can hear every lyric that he spits out. “Pledge allegiance to an ideal, pledge allegiance to myself” is one of the best lyrics he has written in his time in the band and this refrain leads brilliantly upto the band breaking it down into a groovy as hell riff and breakdown designed for people to kill each other to in pits all over the world. It is nearly impossible to not want to bang your head to the outro riff, I dare you to try and resist it.

The closing song on the EP, ‘Rivers Edge’, is a challenger for the best song Hang The Bastard have ever written. Starting off with a riff that sounds a great deal like something Integrity would love to have written and that is a compliment of the highest order. Hang The Bastard haven’t written an EP closer, they’ve written the theme song to the next Pagan Sacrifice going on in a dark forest near where you live. This is an EP written to make you paint every room in your house black, light a tonne of candles, draw a pentagram in blood on your floor and grab your ouija board. Alternatively you could just bang your fucking head. For fans of Black Sabbath, Integrity, Slayer and everyone else Evil and Heavy as sin. Don’t sleep on this EP.

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