IRREPARABLE, INNER LIGHT and MASTIFF album reviews. Words spewed out by mark jenkins.

IRREPARABLE, INNER LIGHT and MASTIFF album reviews. Words spewed out by mark jenkins.

IRREPARABLE - The Fate of All Life

Irreparable exists in that shadowy netherworld where black metal's iciest tremolo bleeds into industrial's mechanical pulse and darkwave's gothic melancholy. The Fate of All Life is a genuinely unsettling synthesis—imagine if Godflesh and early Ulver locked themselves in a bunker with a cache of vintage synths and emerged with something that sounds like the heat death of the universe set to a drum machine.

The black metal elements are present, but refracted through layers of synthetic decay—those tremolo passages feel distant and spectral, as if they're being transmitted through failing equipment. The industrial backbone provides the rhythmic brutality, but it's the darkwave textures that make this truly hypnotic. Vocals shift between tortured shrieks and detached, almost spoken-word delivery that recalls the bleakest moments of post-punk's death-obsessed era. The production is deliberately cold and sterile in a way that feels intentional rather than undercooked—this is music designed to make you feel isolated even in a crowded room.

What separates this from mere genre tourism is the songwriting. These aren't just atmospheric interludes bookended by blast beats; there's actual structure here, hooks buried under the frost. For fans who think Blut Aus Nord's electronic experiments were too warm, who worship at the altar of Amesoeurs, and believe The Axis of Perdition had the right idea all along. Essential for those who find comfort in the cold.

https://irreparable2019.bandcamp.com/album/the-fate-of-all-life

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INNER LIGHT - Nova

Inner Light comes swinging with the kind of metalcore fury that reminds you why the genre mattered before it got strip-mined by radio rock producers. Nova channels that crucial mid-2000s intensity—the era when bands like Converge, Botch, and Coalesce proved metalcore could be genuinely dangerous rather than a vehicle for marketable angst. 

This is angular, chaotic, and uncompromising.

The riffs toggle between brutal breakdowns and dissonant, math-influenced passages that keep you off-balance. When they lock into a groove, it's crushing—the kind of mosh-ready violence that clears floors—but they're smart enough to know when to pull back and let tension build through unsettling guitarwork. The vocals are raw and committed, avoiding the predictable clean/harsh dichotomy that plagued the genre's commercial variants. Production is just polished enough to let the technical prowess shine through without sacrificing the rawness that makes this feel urgent.

This sits somewhere between the emotional devastation of early Poison the Well and the sheer brutality of Integrity's later metalcore leanings. Inner Light consistently improves with each release, showcasing phenomenal skill and craft. For fans who still wear their Hatebreed hoodies unironically and believe Shadows Fall's first two records are underrated classics. Nova proves metalcore can still have teeth when it wants to. 

https://innerlight.bandcamp.com/album/nova

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MASTIFF - For All the Dead Dreams

Hull's heaviest continue their mission to sonically replicate the feeling of being crushed under industrial machinery. For All the Dead Dreams sees Mastiff refining their punishing sludge-meets-death-metal formula while keeping all the nastiness intact. This is caveman riffing executed with precision—downtuned to oblivion but never losing sight of the groove that separates memorable crushing from forgettable noise.

The vocals are absolutely feral, switching between guttural death growls and hardcore barks that sound genuinely unhinged. What makes Mastiff dangerous is their understanding of dynamics; they know when to go full Eyehategod worship and when to inject that British hardcore urgency that gets the blood pumping. The mid-tempo sections hit like freight trains, and when they occasionally open things up with faster passages, it feels earned rather than obligatory. Production-wise, everything is thick and murky but never muddy—you can feel every punishing note in your chest.

This sits comfortably alongside Fister and Primitive Man for fans who believe heavy music should cause physical discomfort. The album title says it all: this is nihilistic, uncompromising heaviness for those whose dreams died long ago and are perfectly fine with it.

https://mastiffhchc.bandcamp.com/album/for-all-the-dead-dreams

P.S. LISTEN AND BUY THEIR WHOLE CATALOGUE, IT IS BRILLIANT, HOOK FILLED AND OF COURSE ABRASIVE.

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