Homewrecker – “Extinction By Design” [EP] [Album Review]

Homewrecker’s brand of savage intensity has seen them through a number of years of success, and touring with the likes of Integrity, Full Of Hell, and Madball. With their latest EP, none of that changes.

It’s an EP that is loaded to the brim with furious hatred and bone-grinding riffs, with drums and rhythm to back the entire delivery, and with enough depth to make the sonic assault a full-scale invasion. It makes sense: the sound production credits read like a who’s who of brilliant releases over the past decade, with Andy Nelson (Harm’s Way, Eternal Sleep) on recording and mixing and Brad Boatright (Nails, Full Of Hell) on mastering. Add a couple guest vocalists from bands Weekend Nachos and Of Feather And Bones, and you have a well-rounded EP that is as sharp and incisive as it is bodacious and heavy.

The EP is an example of a band that wears its Slayer influence on its sleeve, but with enough west coast hardcore influence to ramp up the brutality of breakdowns and stop/start progressions to turn the fiasco into a considered and well-paced release. Not something that can be usually said of a four-song EP. In fact it’s this fact that is probably the one thing that raises eyebrows on this release: it’s able to deliver what a lot of full-lengths can’t these days, which is a sonic narrative that takes the listener on a journey that they want to go on.

There’s little time to deviate, which is arguably the strength of the EP, but on this, the listener is already queuing up the repeat of the release by the time the final song is ringing out. It’s another brilliant addition to the band’s discography that serves to heighten their level of release instead of sidetrack or perform at base levels to satiate listener’s attentions. I look forward to hearing what the new LP will sound like in the new year.

Extinction By Design [EP] Track Listing:

01. Extinction By Design
02. Prophet Liar
03. Caged Existence
04. Path Of Terror

Run Time: 13:19
Release Date: October 14, 2016

Check out the EP Extinction By Design