I’m truly in awe right now; complete and utter shock. A nation nearly 24 hours away by flight has produced some of the most anticipated, brutal, melodic and surprisingly good albums of the year and there’s still a few months left before it’s even over. Australia is no stranger to good ‘core and metal music and tonight’s review yet again highlights one of the many reasons why this continent is becoming one of the strongest and well-liked nations in the ‘core and metal communities.
Headwound The Pony, a six-piece death metal band from Brisbane, Australia has just released their debut album, Merchant Of Misery. I’ve heard some amazing things come out of Australia from multiple known names, but Headwound The Pony is extremely underground and I’m finding myself liking this album just as much as I did; or even more than some of the most anticipated albums this year. This band definitely has a questionable name which led me to not take them very seriously at first but as soon as the first couple of songs played through, I knew I had made a grave mistake in looking down on these guys.
Twenty eight minutes of pure destruction is about the only way to describe the band’s debut album. Ewan Macmillan completely destroys the vocals whether they be high, low, long or short. With three guitarists and a bassist, I’m finding it incredibly difficult to find anything wrong with the bands instrumentals. Blast beats, fast drums and songs that range from technical to not so technical in mere seconds just leaves me in total shock. I’m sort of reminded of the old Thy Art Is Murder when I listen to these guys because of the way they progress and transition between high and low vocals in and out of every song on the album with such haste.
Merchant Of Misery starts off with such immense strength in the way that it opens instrumentally, pauses, and then goes right into the breakdown screaming the name of the title track. Other notable tracks on the album include “Ocean Inferno”, “The Ninth Gate” which has one of the most intense beginnings I’ve heard from a song in quite some time (that made me fall in love with it almost immediately), and lastly, “A Tapestry Of Flesh”. These are only the notable songs; nearly every single song on this release has something about it that appeals to the technical fans, the breakdown fans, and the fans of different ranges of vocals.
With only 2,250 “Likes” on Facebook, I find it such a shame that these guys are being overlooked because of bands like Make Them Suffer, Aversions Crown, In Hearts Wake, Signal The Firing Squad and Boris The Blade. Headwound The Pony shreds just as hard, if not harder, than most of these bands. Their mix of death metal and deathcore is one that I have fallen in love with and plan on listening to for quite some time even after this review has been posted. If you’re looking for fast technical songs, heavy as hell breakdowns, and blast beats blowing up your eardrums, grab this masterpiece from yet another amazing Australian band and enjoy it from the first few seconds till the last few.
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