Review Summary: An impressively mature and ear-tearingly heavy debut release from these youngsters.
Acid Snake hail from the Australian Gold Coast, a place normally known for its sunshine, beaches and generally festive atmosphere. The band's debut EP proves a gloomy counterpoint to its creative birthplace, loaded with doom-flavoured thrash riffs, generous doses of noise and breakneck d-beats. The band clearly draws from its canon of influences (the Deathwish artist roster) but adds its own spin to the genre, displaying a musical maturity uncommon for such a collectively youthful band (all members are under the age of 17).
Opening track 'An Allegory' starts the proceedings in emphatic fashion; sounding like earlier-Cursed tussling with The Chariot whilst The Bronx circle-pits around them. 'Distract' and 'Pariah' keep the pace fast and heavy, with vocalist Harry Watson displaying considerable vocal range and a knack for writing unexpectedly hooky vocal deliveries. The fourth track, 'Hunted', is the only let-down on the EP, displaying a bit less inspiration than the other songs, a misstep forgotten by the time 'Manifest' kicks in. Polyrhythmic thrash riffs are layered over a pounding rhythm section with Watson's yells giving the whole affair a slightly southern taste; the sludgy final breakdown ends the track nicely before 'Amnesty' closes the curtain with a blitzkrieg of noisy punk riffs.
All in all an impressively solid debut; these kids are rapidly earning themselves a name within the Australian hardcore scene and it's easy to see why.
Check them out here:
http://acidsnake.bandcamp.com/
Or search for 'Acid Snake' on Facebook
