DETH by DETH
The self-titled debut EP from Boorloo punk five-piece DETH is out now, and this is an absolutey killer record.
Fronted by Hayley Beth, with Matthew Bairstow and Stefan Caramia on guitars, Dominic Pearce on bass and Mark Tabone on drums, DETH bring together musicians from different corners of Perth’s punk, experimental and noise scenes. The band describe their sound as grindy, doomy, angular and groovy, but those four words only tell half the story. There’s a relentless energy running through these six tracks that really needs to be heard to be understood.
Hayley’s vocals are absolutely electric throughout. They have a fantastic raw tonality to them, at times sounding like she’s pouring her soul out to you down the phone and coming dangerously close to breaking the earpiece. Around her, the rest of the band are on crazy good form, tearing through heavy riffs and sudden shifts in momentum, moving from frantic double-time sections into lumbering half-time grooves, with the odd drum break thrown in for good measure.
Then there’s my favourite part: the guitar solo in the closing track, ‘Nice Try’. The tone is completely hypnotic, with the delay hammering away like a woodpecker drilling the melody directly into your brain. It’s a brilliant final flourish on an EP that never seems interested in taking its foot off your throat.
When the mixes arrived for mastering, the band had a very clear idea of what the finished record needed to do. They wanted it to capture the size of DETH live while preserving the dynamics, tension and smaller details that give the music its intensity. The mixes already contained all that aggression and character, so the aim in mastering was to bring out their weight and definition while making sure none of that rawness was polished away.
The record was made in memory and celebration of DETH’s founding guitarist Jacob Christopher Fry, and the band have chosen to release it exclusively through Bandcamp for the time being, encouraging listeners to support the music directly.
I absolutely love this record. It has movement, personality and teeth that are sharp as hell, but underneath all that noise and weight is a band playing with real precision and purpose. It was a pleasure to master, and you can listen to and support DETH on Bandcamp.
