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RID - Lightning Wheel MLP

RID - Lightning Wheel MLP

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12" MLP , All , Vinyl

Coming out under Rich Walker’s White Horse imprint one might expect a more traditional doom or heavy metal sound on these Nottingham based metallers’ debut EP.

Rather, what the enigmatically named RID offer up is a very primal and succinct form of black metal, apparently influenced by Bathory’s earliest work but actually not sounding in any way retro to these ears.

The production value is modern and powerful with thick and fleshy guitar tones filling the sonic space and natural, clear drums raging behind. What stands out for me, though, are the barbarous vocals.

The man sounds either enraged or demented- possibly both. In fact, there are similarities to Slidhr’s Joseph Deegan and his all-enveloping roar.

The music is so ruthlessly straight forward that it needs those vocals to elevate it, in my opinion.

There is little in the way of dynamic, at least superficially; it’s more a case of put the head down, see you at the end. Somehow, though, that same directness harnesses a hypnotic violence, hauling the listener deeper into its black coils.

Dicharging Duty

Walker’s love of Discharge has been well documented and I can kind of sense their influence here, too. That might go some way in explaining his signing them, or maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree entirely.

That said I wouldn’t quite put RID in the limiting ‘black punk’ bracket even if some similarities to the likes of Bone Awl could be reasonably argued.

The band have wisely opted to keep the running time under half an hour.

If they are to breach the thirty minute mark in future they will have to mix it up in some way, either in terms of pacing (this remains at a high velocity most of the way through) or with more experimental riffing. Hell, maybe even just let go of the reins and submit to total chaos!

That said there is something compelling about their focus and determination in pummeling every riff and every note into the dust. Its violence becomes mantra-like, elevating the songs somehow, launching them out of the gutter of their origin and toward the stars. Remember Fuil na Seanchoille’s excellent debut, ‘Hunger’? The effect is along the same lines.

It’s a quality that they appear to reflect in their repetitious lyrics. Shame they haven’t been published as I’d be curious to discover the source of their ravenous obsession and I’d like to see how they tie in with the fantastic artwork.

For such a simple and single-minded release this one develops a depth and character of its own with repeated spins.

Surprisingly elemental, yet surprisingly intoxicating.

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