EAT YOUR OWN HEAD – NECK-DEEP IN THE BLYTH
These guys can play – hell, these guys can play – but, like the very best math-rock, prog and jazz, technique never takes precedence over the song.
Neck-Deep In The Blyth is the debut album from EAT YOUR OWN HEAD. Founded in 2018 as HANK, the band features stalwarts of the Norwich scene, in brothers Ash (vox/guitar) and Jordan Woolnough (guitar), Tom McGeady (bass) and Ben Mollet (drums).
Produced by Tom Peters and mastered by Katie Tavini, Neck-Deep In The Blyth is an IMMENSE album. Bullets and closing track Ankh are, perhaps, the best distillation of what EYOH are about: clean vocals and guitars mix with jazz rhythms before colliding headfirst into distortion, soaring solos, pounding drums, thundering bass and guttural roars.
Elsewhere, opener Come Undone sounds huge and the predominantly instrumental Pig is a barrage of riffs. Beginning in melodic, gentle style, building to a roar before things calm down again, Winter Takes Its Toll shows the band’s range. Poltergeist is menacing, snarling but melodic. Amongst its bludgeoning heaviosity, Malice Practice includes some beautifully fragile guitar work. Denied mixes math-rock with more than a hint of the arena-filling glory days of grunge. Without compromising in any way, recent single The Concrete of Moulded Men is worthy of daytime radio play. On Poison, Ash gets to demonstrate his vocal range whilst the music veers from jaunty jazz to yet more pounding riffs.
These guys can play – hell, these guys can play – but, like the very best math-rock, prog and jazz, technique never takes precedence over the song. Heavy, intricate and ragingly cathartic as this is, there’s melody and beauty too. By its very nature, EYOH’s music won’t appeal to everyone but this will be manna from heaven for those that like their music intense, complex and very heavy.
9.5/10
