Last Hounds
Burden – Venn Records
How much do you love a solid opening track that is so good it makes you want to add it immediately to your running playlist/driving tunes/accompaniment to forthcoming birth/death/marriage occasions? That much??? Same. You’ll be hard-pushed to find a first track that fits the bill as much as ‘Snakeskin’. And the best bit about ‘Burden’? The whole album swaggers and brawls along these lines. At no point do hardcore/punk heavy weights Last Hounds give up and roll over. They keep the standard high as they pummel and sneer their way through ominously named tracks like ‘Bleed’, ‘Incinerate’ and ‘Running With The Dead’. If you’re after a point of comparison, the obvious one is Frank Carter with his various pals, but to be honest, ‘Burden’ is a half-hour plus of petulance and pestilence in a league of its own. Ah, Last Hounds – there will always be a place in our hearts for irreverent shouty bands like you.
Review by Jo Wright