HOWLS- ‘Eye to Eye/Brick by Brick’
Howls are apparently not dead yet but there’s no denying they have been very very quiet for almost two years now. If this brilliant double-header does turn out to be the Brighton bunch’s last hurrah then it’s a compelling bang to go out on. ‘Eye to Eye’ and ‘Brick by Brick’ aren’t new songs though, they actually pre-date the band’s ‘The Headache’ album, but they match and maybe even better anything from that feverish debut. The former is a garage thrasher incorporating both direct, righteous fury and dark atmospheric energy, and the latter crams the same rage into half the time. This is lurching, queasy anti-melodic hardcore made of familiar ingredients- fuzzy bass, buzzsaw riffs, bullish yowls- topped with plenty of uniquely British punk rock, piss and vinegar. And if this is goodbye, it’s an appropriately noisy, howling one.
