Enabler ‘Flies’ CDEP/DD 2013
The first time I heard Enabler was on the tail end of a mix tape put out by Southern Lord (The Power of the Riff tour mix if I remember correctly) and the track ‘All Hail the Void’ – the visceral energy and pure fucking rage that slapped me in the face stuck with me for a good while. So when this new EP popped up, I was on it like the proverbial fly on shit (release title pun firmly intended).
Instrumental opener ‘Switch’ drops in with a nice melodic hardcore riff that sets the scene quite nicely and has all the hallmarks that make Enabler so vital in the first place. Then we get down to business with the EP’s title track ‘Flies’. No nonsense from the outset, thrashy hardcore at its pounding best, short but sweet, but you don’t listen to Enabler to hear massive epic tracks and guitar twiddling, you listen to Enabler to get something horrible well and truly out of your system.
‘Meaningless Life’ is my favourite track on the EP, just unrelenting brutality with one head crushing breakdown towards the end, pummelling you well and truly into submission, certainly a live set crowd pleaser that’s for sure. Both ‘Sickened by the Wake’ and ‘Sleep Forever’ show off their musicality a bit more than the straight up ragers that preceded them, even dropping in some furious solo work and memorable melodic guitar hooks, all the while keeping things at full tilt. Finishing off the EP they cover a track from Sepultura namely ‘Arise’ and Jesus H Christ they certainly do it justice, saying that the cover is heavy is an understatement (the original was hardly tame was it) but with their ferocious hardcore energy thrown into the mix it gives the classic a new lease of life.
All this said, the ‘scene’ has been inundated with this kind of metallic hardcore over the last few years, bands like Dead in the Dirt and the ever prevalent Nails driving home the power of this particular musical mongrel. So don’t expect the wheel to be reinvented here – what they do provide though is SOLID in every sense of the word. Monolithic, pit inducing breakdowns amidst the speed fuelled hardcore beats hit home with supreme efficiency, easily rising them above the pack as a band to be noticed and taken seriously and not just another clone spitting out the same tried and tested formula. Basically they are bang on form; hopefully they will keep delivering these short but sweet bursts of rage for a good many years to come.
Label: The Compound
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp
Scribed by: Todd Robinson
