ATP! Album Review: MINE - S/T EP

Hardcore has been taken out for a proper rug beating this year. From Title Fight to Code Orange Kids, bands have been bottling up elements from the last three decades, giving it a shake and letting it explode. It doesn't always work, but in MINE's case, the product is one of the most diverse EP's to come out of the UK in a long time.

Featuring former and current members of Hang The Bastard, A Long Time Dead and Centurion's Ghost, you would understandably expect MINE to be a veritable mosh factory, ejaculating blast beats and crushing riffs left right and centre. As rousing as that sounds, MINE are nothing like that. Better yet, they channel dreamy post-rock vibes with a hardcore punk temper, flicking with bipolar energy between frantic noise on par with Rise And Fall and emotionally crafted canvases similar to The Saddest Landscape.

Opener 'Crossed Out' reels you in under false pretences of "chill" before upper-cutting you with some seriously bad tempered drums and desperate screams that recall Envy, but with much less patience. 'What Kind Of Bird Are You' explodes furiously from the very beginning before reaching a screeching halt halfway through and taking a diversion towards more slow-burning, desolate territory. 'Hidden In Draws' (featuring guest vocals from Chloe Edwards of Vales fame) takes a similar approach to 'Crossed Out'; beginning with noodling guitars and building instrumentals which creep towards a flying launch off the handle and straight into closer 'Black Seats' - the most volatile, erratically charged track of them all.

For all its stylistic twists and turns, this EP is packed with blinding intensity even in its most atmospheric moments, dovetailing brutality and beauty in four hard hitting, boundary-blurring tracks.

4.5/5

Emma Garland

"MINE" is out now through Holy Roar (vinyl) and Cult Culture (cassette).