Anger seems like an easy emotion to feel right now. Whether it’s the seemingly endless political mess, the so-called ‘culture war’, the constant and inescapable erosion of rights for minorities and the vulnerable, even just the crushing frustration that comes with our current restricted way of living – it’s hard to express, and even harder to keep bottled up inside. When Liverpool’s Death Blooms announced that their new EP would be called ‘Fuck Everything’, then, it was pretty clear they were about to give us the catharsis we need – and they haven’t disappointed.
‘Fuck Everything’ is exactly as furious as the name implies, and it doesn’t waste any time in showing it, quite literally kicking off with ‘Life Is Pain’. In the space of three minutes, Death Blooms grab every bit of raging energy and throw it up into the atmosphere in a chaotic, Slipknot-esque blur; despite the out and out heaviness of this track, it’s still laced with an intense groove that is, frankly, bloody delicious. It feeds into the ominous tones of ‘Gore’, a nightmare inducing track that flips rapidly between (almost) soft melodics, whispered bile, and coursing ire with the only kind of whiplash you’ll be pleased to be on the receiving end of.
It’s a theme that continues through the next three tracks, from the screamed chants and terrorising breakdown of ‘Anger’ to the spiralling rampage of ‘Fuelled By Hate’, before closing with title track ‘Fuck Everything’ – a song that allows just a brief few seconds of respite before we’re flung straight back into the fire. In a world where it’s difficult to know what to direct your energy at, the lyrics “Fuck what you think / fuck everything / I don’t understand it” seem to cover it in the most succinct and devastating way possible.
Despite only having five songs with which to deliver their blistering fury, Death Blooms not only stick to a breakneck pace throughout, but also manage to demonstrate a whole range of heaviness with masterful precision; ‘Fuck Everything’ isn’t just loud and fast, it’s bursting with melody and groove that seeps into your very core, setting alight every inch of pent-up energy as it courses through your veins. It’s metal, it’s melodic hardcore, it’s pure fucking madness and vitriol compressed into 15 minutes, and it is absolutely everything we could possibly need right now.
GEM ROGERS