Fangs Out - ‘The Humour In Hell’ review
Fangs Out
West-midland’s very own punk/hardcore pack, Fangs Out have released their third EP, The Humour In Hell. With it, comes 5 new punchy and chaotic tracks with all the fun, grit and aggression that you can only find born from the Birmingham Hardcore scene.
To start off, Mikey, Ben, Jay and Alex have decided to stick to their raw sound in terms of production, keeping it simple and only using a small range of effects on vocals or guitar while also maximising the effectiveness of them.
The opening track ‘It’s Your Funeral’ wastes no time getting straight into the action. Punchy stabs of guitar immediately strike you with ‘wahrry’ dissonance playing in-between, the drums build and kick straight into Mikeys unique theatrical screaming with a rather impressive use of falsetto voice at points. A destructive djenty flourish to finish the track brings it to a nice sudden finish, a strong and entertaining start.
‘All The Best Drugs’ follows with a catchy and slidey riff from Ben’s guitar. This stack features more melodic aspects and structure in both music and vocals – obviously still headbangingly-heavy however. I personally find this song to have the best breakdown in the EP and I could easily see limbs of fans swinging and flying everywhere to it.
‘Video Nasties’ changes things up with the introduction of a clean tone for the guitar, creating this edgy and ambient intro for the song. Of course, its short lived as the heavy smashing come crashing in. This track stands out from the rest for featuring a slower pace and almost having doom/classic metal influences. Theres an emotive chorus/bridge followed by a chant-worthy breakdown. Its clear they wanted to break away from typical song structures with this number.
‘Sabbath town’ is the EP’s flagship song and the first single Fangs Out released back in August. It’s a prideful song tributed to the birthplace of metal and their hometown, Birmingham (the title relating to the legendary brum-born Black Sabbath). A fun music video was filmed featuring iconic locations and music venues within the city. The track opens with an audio clip from an interview slating the presence of punk music in Birmingham, the comedically ironic intro perfectly juxtaposes my favourite lyric in the song ‘We got our fangs in sabbath town’. The song is deservingly filthy and truthfully made me feel proud to be a Brummie when I heard it.
‘Down here with me’ is the closing track and is the heaviest of the EP. Opening with an uneasy guitar melody and a sludgy bass. This song feels purely like fan service as it practically begs you to chant along even if you don’t know the words. The track ends which a very creepy piano melody which slowly fades out – an interesting and unexpected ending.
This EP really does feel like a party down in the 7th circle of hell. The eerie melodys mixed with the crazy riffs and screams does feel like demonic hedonism. Fangs Out have produced another solid piece of work. However, I hope to see a full length studio album soon from them to truly push and test their creative ability to the next level.
The Humour In Hell from Fangs Out is out now and available on all good streaming platforms.