SPEAKER – “Grow and Decay” [EP] [Album Review]

Speaker hail from Canada, the home of this very website, and their Bandcamp page describes them as a “wild band.” This bodes well, especially as the photos on their Facebook page of them rehearsing show that this isn’t just a lazy promise. They also look like a nice bunch of chaps, but a quick listen to their debut EP, Grow And Decay, proves that looks can be deceptive.

Not as unhinged as the likes of Dillinger or as chaotic as say Converge, Speaker play a still reasonably accessible style of metallic hardcore. Songs like “Baby Blues” are particularly violent stabs of metallic fury which might sound like a wall of noise to the untrained ear, but to those of you who like your hardcore to sound like the musical equivalent of a multiple car pile-up, Speaker won’t disappoint.

“Shallow Lungs” is a jarring, grinding two minutes of fury that demonstrates their musical chops perfectly and certainly warrants putting this Canadian bunch of nutters into the folder marked “ones to watch in 2015.”

Grow And Decay Track Listing:

01. Refuse
02. Baby Blues
03. When The Son Doesn’t Shine
04. Shallow Lungs
05. Biting Nails

Run Time: 16:09
Release Date: March 01, 2015

Check out the album ‘Grow and Decay’ here.