[Serial Bowl Records – SBR027]
Limited to 40 copies, the latest release from Serial Bowl is sure to sell out quickly, especially with SBR mainstays Onlooker and Ballpeen onboard. So, what do you get for your £7, then eh?
Onlooker
Interesting track, Lambrini Nights, with its nod to John Lydon/PIL vocal delivery in places and again the driving almost hurdling riffing bouncing through the tune with great gusto and its over all too soon of course
Harmonistic Logistics is up next and continues that driving catchy beat, galloping along sweetly, building up a crescendo into a nice piece of solo work riffage that ends the song.
Safe And Sound closes the Onlooker side, again with that hint of Rotten/Lydon vocalisation with some nicely punctuating ‘fuzz’. Great stuff indeed.
Ballpeen
Hate Fantasies kicks off the Ballpeen side, complete with cymbal stabs after the initial intro, very much a metal-in-the-90s stylee (see Kreator etc) but this is so much more than a common-or-garden thrash attack, with a slow-mosh-immense-decay part that weeps heaviness.
Great Wide Receiver is the middle offering and in between crushing sections, the vocals wail out very nicely indeed and punishment is given out until the end.
Sincerity Is All closes off the release, with that Voivod prog-industrial-thrash vibe still very much in evidence and sounds great – just listen to that bass weaving around and the double-bass bits – you’d almost think it was an unreleased track from Dimension Hatross. Love it.
Get it here: https://serialbowlrecords.bandcamp.com/album/onlooker-ballpeen-split-ep
Find out more about Onlooker: https://www.facebook.com/onlookertheband
and Ballpeen: https://www.facebook.com/ballpeennewcastleband
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