Bands that are difficult to pin down to a particular genre are great. They might have a distinctive sound and there might be comparisons that can be drawn, but you can lose yourself in the safe knowledge of something fresh and abstract. Then some idiot music critic comes along and ruins your day by inventing a name for it, so instead of just listening to a cool little bunch of bands you're listening to splatcore. Or power monkeyshines. Or post-splatcore.
With that in mind, there are lines that can be drawn from Leeds-based noise merchants Red Stars Parade to the likes of sludge, grind, noise metal, post-metal blah blah blah. But I'd rather talk about how the expansive booming guitars of Lutine Belle crash out of your speakers - a solid kick in the kidneys, rolling and thundering like waves against an iron hull. See what I did there? With the cover art? I'm a professional you know. This is a tight little EP, with no filler material and concentrating on focused punches of screams and wails backed with landslide drums and one of the most malevolent guitar sounds I have ever heard.
Only the title track comes close to the more epic and swamped material of their debut album, but on a smaller release the immediacy of the songs works to their advantage. There is definitely a danger of repeating themselves somewhat some more variation in sound and pacing would definitely not go amiss, and by the time churning instrumental closer "Forty Knots" rings out its last chord you're left liking what you've heard, but struggling a little bit to pick one track from another.
Overall a quality release, and proof positive that there are still gems to be found amongst the increasingly crowded morass that is the 2009 alt-metal scene.
See also
Will Haven, RSJ, Earthtone9
