An outstanding new full album release from Annelida packs in a flurry of outside-the-box and extraordinarily edgy guitar tones and riffs that hit super hard but in a slightly augmented manner and this gives everything a little bit of a boost in terms of the fierceness of the soundscape that comes through which never lets up the entire record.
The Garage Honey and the Bar Fly Mutiny album waste absolutely no time hitting you with a pretty hardcore sucker punch to the gut as that first track and somewhat title track called "Garage Honey" is absolutely brutal in the best ways possible.
Between the drumming and the guitars alone, you are pushed into this underbelly of emotional aggression and it's portrayed with deep-rooted open-string riffs that feel like they're in drop b or drop C or something like that.
There are also these great sorts of, as I mentioned earlier, augmented riffs in there too that make you think of bands like Dillinger Escape Plan for example.
All this stuff is accompanied by just brutal but ultra tight drumming that isn't like standard metal drawing. The whole band gives more of a feel of bands like Glass Jaw than it does a standard thrash metal band.
This is because they blend in genres with what they're doing so you have elements of alternative rock, thrash metal, and tons of other stuff just rolled into the super unique approach that it's incredibly hard right where it needs to but also provides this sort of robustness that you can't look away from.
The bass player is amazing, and the singer is also just aggressive and brutal but surprising as well.
Actually, there were more than a few surprises around the corners of this record that totally blew me away.
What packs the most punch here is their endless and unbelievable energy that makes it feel like the songs were recorded live on the floor to an extent and that all the band members were just feeding off of each other's energies the entire time.
I'm not saying that I'm sure it was recorded that way because it probably wasn't, but the point is that listening to this record makes you want to go see them live because if the energy is captured like this on a record, then seeing them live must be a face-melting time.
These guys blend in elements of classic east coast hardcore, melodic metal, a sort of underground '90s super heavy grunge and alternative rock, and just everything else you can think of into this one massive release.
This was ridiculous and one of the best heavy albums I've heard maybe in the past complete year hands down.
These guys hit a certain kind of aesthetic that a lot of us have missed for a long time and they're able to take that while still bringing in these different and unique elements that give it that edge to push the envelope.
It is honestly hard to explain even as a reviewer, but this record is a reason to pay attention to the band.
Let's put it this way. If a guitar player is at a party having a conversation with a pretty girl and the first track on this record comes on, you'd immediately stop talking and not be able to focus on anything else but the song.
This record pulls you away from whatever the hell you're doing and puts you in their world and when you come out of it you have to completely react to meet yourself back to reality again.
I'm not going to give every single thing away but like I said earlier, there are some surprises around the corners including a cover song which is the last track on the record.
The cover is kind of a unique one that has certainly been covered before but not super often.
Plus, they do it in a super unique way that feeds into the staple sound that they give, and I love even just knowing that the band that they're covering is an influence on them.
It's a really good cover and it's done in a way that you haven't heard before, while still staying true to the original.
Again, I'm not giving away everything but you should just listen to the record so you can hear that and the other tracks.
Turn this one way up and remember where you heard it first.
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