As The Sun Sets

Surfacing like a suicide note after the body is already cold in the ground, this five-song, barely five-minute parting shot EP evokes both feelings of elation and depression for the departed audio car wreck dubbed As The Sun Sets. On the plus side, the five tracks - no titles, just numerals one to five - are musically some of As The Sun Sets' finest, fusing a slightly more eccentric and experimental spacy collage side with their jagged, frenetic, stop-start blend of technical discordant grind and crushing metallic hardcore. Creating a sound that can flay the flesh from bone, the five tracks fly by in a blur of malevolence and remorse, and you can't help but hate a band this talented, creative and eccentric for never releasing a full album or fully realising their vision. Yet at the same time salute them for their sonic brevity and the ability to slit the throat of the dream when it was evolving into the nightmare. Now reborn as the Daughters, 8949 strangely offers little closure, only posing the question, "what could have been?" A question the Daughters seem willing to answer.