Drainland

Irish crusty punk metal is certainly going to be unique, no doubt about that. And Drainland deliver the goods, taking Unsane's downtown noise rock, Eyehategod's nasty sludge and the almost-cheesy-but-generally-awesome crust punk of Tragedy and moshing it all up into a mix that, well, of course it's going to disappoint after namedropping those three bands, but it's still damn good. Unlike those acts, Drainland don't posses the songwriting chops to match their sonic extremity, but this compilation of two older vinyl-only releases shows that on the newer material the band are getting there, and they're also getting a better ear for production. But we don't always come to extreme metal for "songs" anyway, right? We want a bruising, and Drainland deliver that with excellent style and originality. And get a load of that creepy cover art ― staring at it while listening to the excellent and hypnotic main riff in "Somnial Hex" is a sure-fire recipe for some badass dreams.