Straight out of Woking, South England sludge/groove metallers Gutlocker have been tearing up toilet circuit stages across the country for a while now. Here they bring forth their newest EP Cry Havoc, four tracks that’s promised to be full of groove laced metal with ear splitting riffery and the works, but does it live up to their reputation? Opening song ‘Bitter Memory’ is very reminiscent of Bolt Thrower-esqe death metal meets Iron Monkey styled hardcore infused sludge, but sadly falls short of the mark by a good margin. Sections of the song start to show promise but ultimately fall flat, struggling to grab your full attention. The same can be said for follow up track ‘No Burden’ which trudges down the aforementioned path even further. Whilst ‘Bitter Memory’ possesses some sections that graze your attention, ‘No Burden’ plods along without a thought or moments notice. Despite the thrashy approach to ‘Stuck’, which starts off strong with a quite meaty breakdown thrown in for good measure, it somehow manages to drop off significantly once it hits the halfway mark. Once the final track ‘Welcome to Fucktown’ starts to play, figuratively you’re pretty much over it. Welcome to Fucktown is arguably the strongest track on the record, which isn’t a great accolade to be sporting here. All in all, Cry Havoc! Is essentially a big melting pot of ideas, that sadly aren’t executed as well as it could or should be, that carries itself with a meat and potatoes attitude and delivery. There’s a vast collection of fantastic records from other UK artists so far this year so there’s a lot of strong competition. Unfortunately for Gutlocker, the highest bar they’re reaching for here is average if we’re being kind here. Score: 4/10 Facebook:/gutlockeruk
