Mastiff – Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth – Album Review

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The UK’s Mastiff are hard. As nails. If you want the aural equivalent of being mugged down a dark alley by a gang of knife-wielding chavs simply because they’ve nothing better to do, then Mastiff are the band for you…..you masochist!  

Unsurprisingly, Mastiff’s latest cacophonous collection of nihilistic anthems would have been apt even if COVID hadn’t come along and fucked us all in the ass. Given that it has, Mastiff sound more pissed off than ever, with their grinding Napalm Death / Nails-indebted odes to pain and suffering arguably benefitting from the uncertainty and fear a worldwide pandemic brings. This is nasty stuff. Truly nasty. Urban squalor meets post-apocalyptic isolation kinda nasty. You get the picture. 

In case you haven’t noticed, life is often futile and beset by setbacks and Mastiff have written the perfect soundtrack for such negative emotion and turmoil.

Depressing? You betcha!

But, like all great metal, such is the anger and the ferocity of delivery that a cathartic experience is guaranteed, with Mastiff manifesting your innermost fears and frustrations into fiery blasts of ultra-aggressive sludge, grindcore, doom and hardcore. Much like they did on 2019’s outstanding Plague, Mastiff’s social commentary provides Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth’s with its contorted backbone; one that is twisted beyond recognition, surrounded by exposed sinew and gristle.   

To quote the band themselves, “same old shit. Nothing’s changed”. And in Mastiff’s case, that’s a good thing. We wouldn’t want this bunch of malcontent misanthropes any other way! 8/10

Mastiff will release their ferocious new album Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth on 10th September, 2021 via eOne.

MASTIFF are:
Vocals – Jim Hodge
Guitar – James Andrew Lee
Guitar – Phil Johnson
Bass – Dan Dolby
Drums – Michael Shepherd