Album Review: Lavotchkin - Widow Country EP

Guitarist Martin Downing of UK hardcore mob Lavotchkin claims that “In the UK, our scene is a bit oversaturated at the minute. So many bands aretrying to do so many different things”. In a sense he’s right, and it’s aproclamation that effectively proves Lavotchkin to be a band fighting forsurvival in an overcrowded, unimaginative genre.

“Widow Country” opens with “The Pledge” which has a good introductory feel, snarling vocals and guitars slowly powering it to a hectic climax. “It’s A Good Day for a Wake” looks to build on this, but despite possessing a hurtling pace, it careers through two minutes with no real control, losing it’s direction en route. Most impressive is “The Werther Effect”, a truly explosive example of what the band can do, combining Gallows-esque drivewith brutal, ear-splitting vocals, making for a raw, bruising sound.

But with “No Hope Did You Bring” and “Irukandji”, you’re pushed to findany spark, with both providing lack-lustre, rehashed ideas of a genre inneed of rejuvination. Neither track is particularly poor, but is that the description a band yearns for and spends sometimes years writing and perfecting a record for?

Closer and title track “Widow Country” is a slightly more positive end toproceedings, creating a rhythm, chaotic though it may be, that fused withwell judged pace changes and typically angst-ridden vocals, make for apositive ending.

“Widow Country” is at points, as good as anything else the UK hardcore scene has to offer, but like so many of their peers, too often the bandfollows uninspired conventions, with no real spark to set them apart,leaving them as just another band in a genre crying out for progression.

2.5/5

"Widow Country" by Lavotchkin is released on June 21st on Shark City Records.

Lavotchkin on MySpace.

Liam McGarry