Bastions - Island Living EP

9/10

Up to now Bastions have made nothing but fantastic music and with their debut due out sometime in the not so distant future i thought that it was only fitting i give my take on what has to be one of the best British hardcore releases in recent memory.

Bastions have been quickly building a reputation as a force to be reckoned with, having recently finishing a tour with Gallows and a number of headline dates lined up for the end of the year with the excellent Kerouac, the band are more than ready to show us just what they are capable of. They released their Island Living EP late last year and to sum it up it is 3 tracks of noisy, heavy as hell and thoroughly interesting hardcore and should not be overlooked. It is clear that this band mean business and with out a doubt are currently standing taller than any British hardcore band in terms of quallity at the moment, the reason for this being that they dont just take their influences and create something that is identical or aim to replicate what has came before them. They create a sound that, to put it bluntly, sounds like everything good about hardcore, post-hardcore and noisy alternative rock pulled appart, studied and then built upon creating this machine of forward thinking brutallity.

The song “Island Living” kicks things off with a strong bassline, something that modern hardcore seem to be lacking, followed by the guitars and vocals bursting into the mix and its about now when Bastions sound really arives. The guitar work is nothing too complex, giving everything a much more classic hardcore feel with the sharpness similar to the likes of The Jesus Lizard and Young Widows, but having certain subtleties which keep everything sounding interesting and unique. Jamie’s vocals are fantastic. There is no question that his voice is perfect for Bastions, sounding as huge and aggressive as the name suggests. His gut wrenching screams, or shouts for the most part, sound just as tortured as the lyrics suggest, conveying nothing but raw emotion in every word. Everything about the two and a half minutes that make up this opening track is spectacular, ending with a huge breakdown (and i do not mean the god awful roundhouse kicking kind) leaving you well and truly bludgioned.

“Soar” follows sounding completely different, much faster and upbeat while still keeping the sense of dark agression throughout. The song flows well throughout with guitar that could make even the dullest crowd want to move their feet and smash headfirst into an amp, wall, band member etc. The song builds momentum, ending in a fury of pounding drums, heavy vocals and even heavier guitar to reinforce the beating the first song gave you.

“The Great Unwashed” stands as the longest and most intense song on the EP, starting up with an almost hypnotic guitar riff accompanied by bass and drums filling it out, giving it substance while remaining quite minimalistic. Soon enough things pick up again once the guitar comes back in with full force, sounding heavier than any of this unnecessarily drop tuned nonsense that is deemed heavy today. The faint, almost unamplified screaming that follows is as haunting as it is intense, showing vunrability and pure emotion similar to the likes of The Saddest Landscape. The song eventually fades out marking the end of possibly the best 7” to rear its head in a long time.

Cleary if you dont have Bastions in your life yet there is something wrong. This EP is the perfect example of the tallent coming out of the UK at the minute and Bastions deserve far more attention than they are getting at the minute. Keep a look out for new material from these guys and catch them at as many shows as you can get to because they are twice as intense live as they are on record and you would be a fool not to.

For fans of: Blacklisted, Botch, Breather Resist, Young Widows The Ghost Of A Thousand, Gallows, Converge, The Saddest Landscape