What happens when you take the nimble, arty interlocking guitar work of Fugazi and mix it with the edgy, metallic stylings of Cave In? Last Hours are a Brooklyn based band with a penchant for awkward tempos, cleverly arranged guitars and skull-crushing roars that emerge from the ether and flatten the listener with their unexpected potency. This self-titled effort is the band’s debut EP and it is an impressive work from start to finish.
Opening with ‘Awaken’ was a wise move. A near perfect mix of mid-nineties alternative rock and bruising metal, it has a power and groove that is all its own and the experience of the band members (with connections both past and present to Family, Beast Modulus, Somnuri and Grandfather) shines through in the brilliantly constructed arrangement that keeps the listener guessing until the end. The band don’t let up on the swirling ‘the enemy within’ which sounds like a raw tool being battered in a knife fight by the deftones. The clean vocals of the verse, swathed in reverb, give way to ferocious screams, but there’s no formula here – the band follow the twists and turns of their own complex musicianship and the result is mesmerising. As an added draw, Candiria guitarist John LaMacchia drops in to lend a helping hand with the track’s epic solo. Heading into darkness, ‘Dead sleep’ recalls ‘Bleach’-era Nirvana and the Melvins with its sludgy bass groove and echoing guitar. Slowly building into a Neurosis-esque nightmare, ‘dead sleep’ is a dynamic and disturbing piece of music that will haunt your nightmares.
The second half of the EP emerges I the static of ‘pulses’, a short segue that sounds like an announcement in the lobby of hell before the band kick back in with the sludgy groove of ‘at the end’ which opens with frazzled guitar and the ominous prediction “the water begins to rise”. Juxtaposing harrowing screams and clean vocals, it sounds like Queens of the Stone Age filtered through the lens of Neurosis and quite unlike anything else emerging at the moment. It’s a stunning track and another object lesson in music as art rather than commerce from a group of musicians who have built their career on such a position. Perfectly named, ‘jagged’ sees a scything riff tearing holes in the fabric of time as Phil Sangiacomo (Family) lays down a rhythm that requires a degree in quantum physics to deconstruct. A bold, arty monster of a track, the clean vocals that predominate offer much more depth than screaming ever could, and it is clear that Last Hours are more interested in atmosphere and longevity than simply offering up straight forward visceral thrills alone. The EP ends, and far too soon, with the progressive ‘submerged’ which drifts into territory lost occupied by Botch on their amazing swansong, ‘an anthology of dead ends’. It’s a fitting end to the EP and leaves the listener very much wanting more.
Last Hours are one of those rare gems, a band who offer a new take on familiar tropes and take their music into oft-unexpected landscapes. Varied, eclectic and enthralling, the six tracks on offer here (seven if you include the short segue of ‘Pulses’) offer up a compelling vision and, if they can maintain this level of intensity and invention over a full-length effort, great promise for the future. This is bold, genuinely progressive music that draws on a wide-range of influences only to mould them into something new and exciting. Just listening to the EP gave me goosebumps as the layered riffs piled up and this is one to which I’ll be listening time and again.
9/10
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