these beasts cover

The Beastly Rock of These Beasts

these beasts cover

It’s not surprising to find out These Beasts are a Chicago band. From the deft balance of caustic chaos and melody to the genre-blurring approach for each song to the blissful catharsis of anger through distortion: these are the playgrounds of other noisy Windy City luminaries like Indian, The Atlas Moth, and the scene’s patron saints Shellac. And having Sanford Parker (Rwake, Unearthly Trance, Minsk, etc.) on board for album production might have had something to do with that as well. Despite their relatively short time as a band, These Beasts’s second release following 2016s Salvor EP sounds remarkably assured and as well-crafted as any veteran band’s output — check out an exclusive full stream of the brand-new These Beasts EP below.

Leadoff track “End of the Whip” is the EP’s thesis statement, encompassing as much of the band’s sound as possible. It starts with a lilting “where’s the beat?” melody, then dives straight into a lockstep groove augmentation of the opening riff with harsh vocal growls, continuing that pattern until the caveman-drum beatdown toward the end. As varied as this band is already, “Shovel and Pick” change things up yet again, with hook-heavy choruses and an ever-mutating song structure that keeps the listener guessing as to what might happen next. It’s the kitchen sink approach — stick a whole bunch of ideas in one place — but instead of sounding thrown together, the These Beasts EP is incredibly tight and cohesive.

“Fedor” works in a similar way, building a crescendo that teases its conclusion for a few harrowing moments before kicking down a door into the riff warehouse. This is where the comparisons to Whores and Unsane really start to make sense, though it’s much more important to emphasize just how great These Beasts (and any other band, for that matter) are as a singular entity. Yes, there will always be obvious similarities between bands that work in the same types of subgenres, but it’s always those that can plant their own flag that rise above the masses. These Beasts have locked up the formula for catchy, haywire rock-‘n’-roll already; their current trajectory will have new bands being compared to them soon enough.

The These Beasts EP releases Friday via Magnetic Eye Records. Pre-order the album via Bandcamp. Drummer Keith Anderson had this to say about the new EP:

These Beasts is our second EP and was intended to be a full length, but life gave us some setbacks, as it will do, during the writing process, and we wanted to get the songs out sooner than later. So, I guess the overall album theme is one of urgency. Urgency to get the record out, to have the songs heard. Our focus was on making heavy but interesting songs, and recording with Sanford was a blast. He brought out the best in us, had great ideas, and we had tons of fun, we just went for it. Can’t wait to do it again, but heavier!

these beasts band

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