Midlands five-piece ‘Last Hounds’ are releasing new EP, ‘Old Dreams’, on 19th of May. Fans of Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, LetLive, and Gallows are sure to be a fan of the hardcore punk’s four tracks.
‘Listen (To Me)‘ didn’t immediately grab my attention, but it’s not a bad track. It builds over the minute and a half with striking vocals rapping over the top of some decent instrumentation before ending with an almighty scream.
‘Lay Me Down’ is immediately much speedier, which I liked much more than ‘Listen’. At this point, it also occurred to me that the EP is very well mixed – occasionally punk bands have a danger of everything sounding like a thrashing mess, but here, nothing sounds like noise or gets lost, everything is great in its own right. The chorus is catchy enough: ‘lay me down/ I deserve to hit the ground’, and unlike the first song, this had me hooked. There is something about the song that just makes you want to be in a pit – a feeling that stays with you until the EP is over.
The first thing I noticed about ‘Murder Murder’ was that the bass is brilliant. It’s definitely my favourite song on the EP. The lyrics are slick and extremely well written, and every single little element of the song works. If for some reason you only check out one song from the EP, please make it ‘Murder Murder’.
‘DOA‘ gets off to a powerful start, again the lyrics here are very well written. The band said “DOA is about people in various positions of power trying to pull the wool over our eyes when it comes to feeding us information. DOA stand for “dead on arrival’, in the context of the song, it means that sometimes you have to be at your lowest point/ situation before it is possible to realise that somethings gotta give, and that things need to change. The best way to do that is to unite, and rise up as one.”
With the current state of politics, this song couldn’t be more relevant. But aside from the politics of it all, it’s a fantastic sounding track.
All in all, this band have written an EP full of arena songs, and it’s brilliant.
Catch Last Hounds live:
26.5.17 – Leeds, Eiger Studios
27.5.17 – Manchester, Aatma
28.5.17 – Liverpool, Maguire’s Pizza Bar
29.5.17 – Nottingham, The Maze
30.5.17 – London, Black Heart
31.5.17 – Bristol, The Exchange
1.6.17 – Cardiff, Fuel
3.6.17 – Leamington Spa, Zephyr Lounge
4.6.17 – Brighton, Latest Music Bar