Murderhouse and The ‘Self-Doubt’ EP.
Murderhouse – Brighton, England, United Kingdom.
Cover photo credit: Nucosi Photography – Click Here.
The end of June saw the Brighton based Murderhouse release the sequel to their 2016 EP Self Help, entitled Self-Doubt. This second EP matches the emotive Indie/Pop-Punk/Emo crossover of its forerunner, refined, honed and complete with citations of The Front Bottoms, Jawbreaker and as far off as Fugazi.
It’s hard not to hear the conditioning of Jawbreaker across both releases, alongside that of PUP and Transit in regard to the emotional croons, raw exclamative vocals and sharp Indie guitars. This is Emo indeed but far enough away from the cliche and embarrassing early 2000’s that its more than listenable.
Much of the rawness of Murderhouse is born from the majority of their instrumentation sitting semi-acoustically. Tracks such as ‘Dwight Keeley’ are layered well with equally sharp and gritty tones and enough of a melodic drive to balance things.
The melodic lead guitar in ‘BURYMEbeneathGRUBBS’ is the driving force. With such a harsh vocal output the Indie Rock guitars allow the lighter percussion to sit more comfortably and to avoid the Murderhouse sound simply fluttering by nonchalantly.
‘I hope you know that I’m useless’
‘GHOSTS! GHOSTS! GHOSTS!’ is very much the stylistic child of its predecessors and the most Pop-Punk on the release. Of course there is some issue with the use of said genre-tag but I mean it not in a derogatory way at all. ‘GHOSTS!…’ again carries a Transit vibe in its driven but semi-acoustic Pop-Punk as it further shows the skill at bare-honesty this band have. Again, this band are not the same old winey cliché Pop-Punk/Emo four-piece, these are emotions, they are wining I suppose but cathartically and they actually convey something.
The best part of this EP for myself at least is that to be blunt, this band would not normally be on my rotation or even my forte in writing but neither of those facts are bearing much in the way of my praise for this EP.
Musically the band throughout EP tease a harder and more complex sound which assumably is the influence from Fugazi, although with that said the bare-honesty and general sharp discordant tone could also be credited to that. That said, more of “that” I feel would suit the band but there is always time.
‘Galahad’s Nightmare’ to begin with at least crosses between the mild Pop-Punk from earlier on and a brief flirtation with upbeat Punk-Rock, before finally pushing into some form of Fugazi/Post-Hardcore territory with The Argument coming to mind. The structure of the song is tempo and genre crossing in this fashion with the changes in vocal style echoing the DC legends with its own version of the MacKaye and Picciotto interplay albeit more pop-orientated.
This EP closer would be the track I would pick out upon reading their introduction in my inbox. Am I disappointed that there are less tracks like this? Perhaps slightly but at the same time Self-Doubt still flows very organically and ‘Galahad’s Nightmare’ is best way to close it.
This EP is bleak, very real, a must listen for those who seek non-cliché emotive music and out now via Hanger Records.
Find the band and their label below:
- Social Media/Updates: Facebook, Twitter.
- Music: bandcamp (Hanger Records), bandcamp (Sorta Lonely), Spotify.
- Hanger Records: Facebook, Twitter, bandcamp.
- Sorta Lonely: Facebook, Instagram, Official Website.
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