ALBUM REVIEW : HYSTERICAL INJURY - DEAD WOLF SITUATION

Dead Wolf Situation is the debut full length album from Bath's Hysterical Injury, a band that should need little introduction to you Music Liberation regulars. For those of you who have yet to get acquainted, here's a quick recap:-

We first discovered the band early last year when we nominated them to play on the Emerging Talent stage at the Glastonbury Festival. We followed that up with an interview with the brother/sister duo, then tipping them for new year greatness on Tom Robinson's BBC 6 Music show, as well as including them in our ' Future Sounds of 2012' article. We concluded our in-depth 'research' with a recent visit to Brixton's Windmill to catch the band headlining a show as part of their album release tour.

So it's safe to say we know we're on to a winner here.

The album starts with 'Halo Alkanes', a song which contains the four main ingredients of Hysterical Injury's sound. Firstly the attack-minded drums from Tom Gardiner, which are swiftly joined by the second ingredient, Annie Gardiner's gritty bass guitar. Next are Annie's distinctive half pop, half rock, half something I've never heard before vocals (hang on, does that add up?), and lastly its the downright dirty attitude that this band has to conventional ways of producing and displaying their artistic talents.

'Icebreak' will get stuck in your head all day, with the opposites of Annie's dainty (ish) vocals colliding with the fierce, driving repetitive punk-esq music. 'Vex' demonstrates a greater depth, with the tempo brought down, whilst my second favourite track on the record 'The Works', is a delightful grungey slow/fast, stop/start affair. 'Visions Of Trees' is perhaps the most serious song of the LP, and 'Into The Cabin' the moodiest. 6 Music loved 'Maths' is the shortest track at just over two minutes, and is beautifully part accessible and part inaccessible.

My favourite song on the album is 'Bitch's Balls' (great title), a track which starts stripped back but is slowly added to with a growing intensity, made up of wild guitars, prominent drums, and far out vocals.

Concluding with the monstrous 'Rainbow Thunderclap', the 'Dead Wolf Situation' experience is one that leaves you feeling part exhausted, part overwhelmed, part enlightened, but in the end wholly satisfied and entirely captivated. As debut albums go its certainly sets the bar high, which will not only challenge those bands around them, but also will surely push the Hysterical Injury onto even greater things in the future. A thought which I hope you'll agree is more than tantalising...

Hysterical Injury // Buy 'Dead Wolf Situation'