STEGEL
Angharod EP
1. Bhuna
2. Batman Costume
3. Mr Fight-Boy
4. Barada Nicto
5. Bernie's Hair Machine
6. Bluff Toni
7. Quaerò
8. Nimium
| PROMO EP REVIEW | |
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STEGEL 1. Bhuna |
| Immediately it strikes you, the spiteful gracefulness and demure
exhilaration of this EP (or at 36 minutes is it a mini-album?). Momentarily distracted by
the acoustic openings of Bhuna, the bowel-crushing base rumbling brutality of Batman Costume
slaps you about the face with driving metalcore that takes no prisoners and gives your
ears a well good seeing to. Intensity pours out of every instrument and is further
funnelled from the vocals that extrude exertion into the air like a burst water main. Taking in the inexhaustible energy of Mr Fight-Boy and Bernie's Hair Machine as well as the esoteric and musing Barada Nicto and Bluff Toni, there continues a blasting incineration of your senses, a refreshing no-nonsense kick in the teeth. It’s insanely angry, depicting a narration of modern metal exactly where it is today, bang up to date with no pretensions, only demands. The exhilaration is like walking alone at night through the streets of the roughest housing estate that you can imagine while shouting, "come on you slags, I’ll fuckin ave ya".There are great vocal variations showing a huge development, an exhibition that’s extreme and impulsive, intemperate and unconstrained, containing much more than just the prerequisite screams and indeed producing further credit with some ripened singing. There are songs that blast you into the corner with aggression, however which are also constructed with plenty of nooks and crannies to keep you aurally inquisitive on each listen. With scattered overtones of Will Haven, Zao, Shai Hulud and Drowningman, they go further showing a deviation of styles with invention and open minds during the acoustic Bhuna (bazooki-esque) and Quaerò. Both are nice tracks in their own right (particularly the latter) but also serve well as excellent intermissions from the onslaught. The momentous Nimium, at a full 10 minutes long, takes a direction outside the hereditary nature of the genre and expands progressively, coercing melody with resourceful composition while the band discover exponentially, new avenues of direction.The music on this EP has qualities that explode, detonate and erupt but then moulder in a graceful, curving technique with dignified intelligence and an understanding of how to craft the genre. Stegel really have come of age with this recording and have excelled in demonstrating their potential, which surely now has so much momentum it can only amass further achievement. A sound that contaminates pollutes and infects a person’s musical preference only leaving an unquenched desire for more. This has just got to signal their time coming… |
| Rigsby (15th April, 2002) Transcripts From The Downtuned www.downtuned.co.uk |
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