It’s been on a long debate of where’s better – North or South? Masters Of The Universe pitches some of the best bands from both ends of the country in a frantic punk rock affair, set to tear faces off across the land.
Showing the shred side of the south are Southampton based ALMEIDA; a band who’ve done the round for a while but not necessarily set the live scene on fire. Thankfully on record they’ve become some sort of titan of tech, calling on sort of thrash and shred expected from acts such as Protest the Hero and Between the Buried and Me. ‘Fantastic Massacre’ is a rollercoaster ride of mental songwriting which also clocks in at over seven minutes long – nearly double the length of anything else you’ll hear on this EP.
FAIR DO’S show us how the North do it, with a similarly techy, thrash affair. Filled with glorious guitar melodies and speedy licks, it’s reminiscent of A Wilhelm Scream with a British twang. EP opener ‘One of Life’s Greatest Lessons’ has everything spot on and quite frankly, if the last minute of the song doesn’t make you want to lash out at the air with a doom claw and air guitar in to oblivion, there’s something wrong with you.
THE LIABILITIES slow things down a little (albeit because they’re not playing at 160bpm) with their take on ska punk, which seems a little out of place on this record when say compared with RUIN IT FOR EVERYBODY who sound something like a furious Identity Crisis-era Thrice. Although the latter two bands are writing decent, honest tunes, their production lets them down a bit as it doesn’t push their sound as far as it should, leaving the north/south tech-punk battle raging onward with Almedia and Fair Do’s flying the banner.
KYLE BUNKIN