CAGE FIGHT
Cage Fight CANDLELIGHT Incendiary hardcore thrash from an unexpected source
WHAT YOU ARE about to hear may shock you: musicians don’t just play one style of music. Take James Monteith, for example, well-known as one-fifth of prog-metal outfit Tesseract. For the most part, his music career has seen him playing a major role in the rise of the more technical subgenres of metal that include the explosion of the djent movement in the early 2010s, but Cage Fight’s self-titled debut album sees him take on the riff in a more direct manner – one of the thrashier variety. Along with former Eths vocalist Rachel Aspe, bassist Jon Reid and drummer Nick Plews, the London hellraisers are aiming to give people their gnarliest listen for a while with their debut album, and it’s one that starts before you even hit play on the record; yes, that artwork is no Photoshop trickery, but an actual tattoo on someone’s actual hand, that’s been done by Rachel herself.
What follows is three quarters of an hour of pummelling hardcore that regularly dips into groove and thrash metal territory, never affording listeners a chance to breathe, with a number of the songs segueing into the next. At its foundation is a thunderous amount of riffs and breakdowns that will incite pits up and down the country on future tour dates, with James executing a number of skin-shredding solos like Shine Don’t Fade. The clean gang vocals in Hope Castrated and Make A Decision are a call to arms in every respect,
The Black Dahlia Murder frontman Trevor Strnad pops up on Eating Me Alive
to provide his own indomitable pipes in the mix, and the closing cover of Body Count’s Bitch In The Pit is an inspired choice of song.
The star of the album, though, is Rachel, whose throat-ripping delivery captures the anger and emotions that have been poured into this recording through the events of the last two years. Given James’s main project, how frequently Cage Fight can write new music and tour remains to be seen, but as a starter for 10, this is an absolute rager. ■■■■■■■■■■
FOR FANS OF: Slayer, Lamb Of God, Terror ELLIOT LEAVER