The last few years have seen bands from the Emerald Isle worm their way into just about every playlist I’ve made, at least the playlists that require “gurn face”

5 years ago

The last few years have seen bands from the Emerald Isle worm their way into just about every playlist I’ve made, at least the playlists that require “gurn face” riffs and big, keg swinging breakdowns. You know the sort. The playlist you put on that makes you air drum on the back of someone’s head on the train, foregoing regular social boundaries and just getting right up in their business. With not one harp or tin whistle in sight, Ireland’s current crop of ‘core culprits are guilty of putting out the kind of music that makes me want to smash cans off my head. Head on over the jump and let’s see if we can’t get you riled up and ready to wreck your nana’s living room.

Worn Out Should Rub You The Right Way

I had a joke ready about not being able to put a ‘Cork’ in Worn Out‘s driving, energetic brand of ‘core but the band’s hometown deserves better than that. Up first, “No Truth” is the latest single from some crackin’ young lads who drop sledgehammer riffs with every gnarled bass slide, and knock heads with anyone dumb enough to get in their way. The impetus is on the listener to sit still for as long as possible before one of the Cancer Bats/Every Time I Die inspired drops inevitably shakes their brain into Pit Mode.

This new track tears through the kind of bottom fret grooving that Eighteen Visions were so good at before the fashion police had them writing soft rock; the final passage of the track containing a dirty bitch of a riff that could knock down 18V’s “Tower of Snakes” with consummate ease. Produced impeccably with sizzling cymbals and wretched rasping vocals, I can’t wait to hear more from this lot, find them on Facebook and throw some cans (or love, your choice) at them.

Get On Your Filthy Knees and “Crawl Back” To Bailer

Another Corker (sorry) from the Bailer camp, their latest single has been out for a hot minute and if you haven’t heard it yet then now is the time. It’s been an absolute treat covering these gents over the last few years and watching them grow into their beards and burly, burly riffs. “Crawl Back” is a definitive Bailer track, but it’s a little bit more sinister than anything we’ve heard from them up to this point. The punishing drive of their sound is complemented by a little bit more malice behind the scenes and screams; not that the band have ever shied from conflict, but this latest track has some ‘big mood’ behind it, for want of a better term. I am yet to find a fault in this band. Even the lyric video is stunning. Goddammit.

Last year’s self-titled EP was the third in three years from these ruffians and “Crawl Back” is the first tease at where they’re heading next; a full-length is impending, on top of their first visit to Scotland, where I will be coming out of mosh retirement for one night and one night only. I can’t wait. Follow them here and, if you can, get to a show.

Catch These Hands (And Axes) With Axecatcher

I can only hope that the gentlemen of Axecatcher don’t mind me throwing them under the Eire banner, but I got really attached to the title of this feature and wanted them in it anyway. Another band that I’ve featured on Heavy Blog before – premiering their Common Blood EP a few years back – Axecatcher fall under the same umbrella as both Worn Out and Bailer, but their particular style of metallic hardcore leans more towards the metallic end of the spectrum. Don’t just take my word for it though.

New EP Second Hand Grief is one in a long line of releases from the Derry band, and I hand on heart believe it’s their finest work yet. There’s controlled chaos and equally precise instrumentation delivered by the bucketload, and on “Cry Foul” the band shine the brightest. Traditional metal gives way to panicked ‘core that twists and turns through passages, wasting not one second of air. Again, furious stuff, and if you aren’t involved already, sort it out mateys. Get them on their socials here and play this loud enough to raise the dead.

Matt MacLennan

Published 5 years ago