Mastiff to Release Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth Sept. 10 on eOne
Heartfelt congratulations to UK sludge extremists Mastiff, whose third album is due out in September as their debut release for eOne. Now labelmates to the likes of High on Fire and Crowbar, the band enters their new situation bolstered by a rare echelon of aggression and tonal heft following 2019’s Plague and 2017’s Bork (review here), both of which were offered through APF Records — quite a feather in that label’s cap as well — to bludgeoning, part-grinding effect. The trend would seem to continue, as one can hear through “Endless,” the first single from the forthcoming Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth, for which preorders are up now.
They’ve also got tour dates, which is nothing if not pleasant to see.
Cover art and info follows from the PR wire:
MASTIFF: UK Blackened Sludge Unit To Release Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth Full-Length September 10th Via Entertainment One; Preorders Available
UK five-piece and recent Entertainment One (eOne) signees MASTIFF will release their Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth full-length September 10th!
Forged in 2014, MASTIFF’s unique combination of blackened sludge, grindcore, and powerviolence creates a bleak and chaotic atmosphere, sounding as if the spawn of Crowbar, This Is Hell, and Napalm Death composed an album inside the Lake Of Fire. The unrelenting, brutish curmudgeon aura of MASTIFF can be deceptive however, as bright sparks of nuance and jarring adventurousness lurk behind every riff, rumble, and anguished, painstaking bellow stitching together a soundtrack suitable for betrayal, depression, self-loathing, and total despair, with winking, devilish glee. The bulldozing din of MASTIFF is akin to the catharsis in setting something aflame just to watch it burn.
Crafted in just five days at No Studio with producer Joe Clayton (Pijn, Wren, Leeched), the band’s third full-length, Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth, is a misanthropic masterpiece. The sorrow-filled souls of every miserable cretin it reaches will stir in basements, hovels, pubs, and darkened alleyways. Conceived during a pandemic-enforced longest stretch between MASTIFF records, the record paints on the band’s familiar canvass, but with a far larger palette than ever before.
In advance of the record’s release, MASTIFF offers up the record’s first single and video, “Endless,” now playing.
Comments the band on the union with eOne and video premiere, “It still feels like some kind of fever-dream that we’re working with eOne on our new record. Collectively, some of our favorite bands of all time have been part of this label, so it’s absolutely mind-blowing that we might be spoken of in the same breath as them. Since conversations first began with the team, they’ve been so supportive and enthusiastic about our grotty little band and the album we’ve made. We felt pretty sure that we’d made something quite special this time around and knowing that people with long and illustrious histories in the metal industry felt the same way – not to mention people who’ve worked with some of the genre’s biggest and best – it’s a pretty spectacular vote of confidence for five miserable miscreants from Hull.
“‘Endless’ is one of the earlier songs we wrote for the new record. It feels in a way like a microcosm of the whole album, in that it’s all over the place sonically yet somehow hangs together coherently. It goes from this shockingly anthemic — if not quite melodic — blackened opening, through a sinister chuggy bridge, and then ends in a chaotic, ‘90s-Converge-breakdown. Lyrically, it’s a bit of a meditation on the helplessness that comes when a human being becomes an emotional bargaining chip in a broken-down relationship. Typical jolly MASTIFF fare, really. We’re so disgustingly happy with how the video turned out too. Our old mate and Hull native Stew Baxter helped us put together a grimy, raw promo that feels in part a direct homage to some of the early-‘00s metalcore videos that inspired us so much back in the day, and part like a CCTV feed catching a crime against music on tape.”
Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth will be released on CD, LP, and digital formats. Find preordering options at THIS LOCATION: https://mastiff.lnk.to/leavemetheashesoftheearth
Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth Track Listing:
1. The Hiss
2. Fail
3. Repulse
4. Midnight Creeper
5. Beige Sabbath
6. Futile
7. Endless
8. Scalped And Salted
9. Lung Rust
MASTIFF will bring their odes of antipathy to stages this Fall on a short UK run with Calligram. See all confirmed dates below:
MASTIFF w/ Calligram:
10/26/2021 The Anvil – Bournemouth, UK
10/27/2021 Black Heart – London, UK
10/28/2021 Satan’s Hollow – Manchester, UK
10/29/2021 Opium – Edinburgh, UK
10/30/2021 SOAR – Nottingham, UK
10/31/2021 Record Junkee – Sheffield, UK
MASTIFF:
Jim Hodge – vocals
James Andrew Lee – guitar
Phil Johnson – guitar
Dan Dolby – bass
Michael Shepherd – drums
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