Shlug – Split The Grin | EP Review

The Cardiff based art rock trio's debut EP spins heads and evaporates the competition.

Shlug have been a promising band since their inception in late 2019 and have held the title of most energetic live band with a searing hatred on your eardrums. Having only released a handful of songs, they’ve now dropped their debut EP, Split The Grin. According to guitarist/vocalist Ellis Acton-Dyer, Split The Grin is ‘an understanding that when you’re slogging through the grey, things will eventually be alright’. ‘Forever Weeps Baby Boy Blue’ is the first foray into this mindset that Shlug have laid out for you. It’s noise-rock to the highest, and loudest, degree. 

The twisted distorted guitar intertwined with Francis James’ frantic drumming is a chaotic start to the EP and is carried to the end of the bombardment. Being born coming out of a panic attack on his kitchen floor, Acton-Dyer‘s vocals are a mixture of the aggression Shlug are born from, but with a twinge of emotional despair. Even the slower quieter passage mid-way through you can hear the vocals are emotionally charged. The EP only reaches just under 13 minutes and holds just four songs, but between the first and last note Shlug create an uneasy atmosphere which on times does make for an uncomfortable listen as they transcend their noise-rock audience by adding layers of other genres to create a disturbing melody that only they can make sense out of, which may dissuade people from getting into the EP properly. However, the more you play Split The Grin, the more you ‘get it’ and the warped world of Shlug becomes clearer and less murky, on the eyes that is. On your ears it’s still a gloom laden work of art.

Ethan Poole’s bass tone does this remarkably. Lead single ‘Grated Thumbs’ fully shows off his tone immensely. Piercing through the barrage of battering drums and cut-throat vocals, it vibrates to an almost queasy extent, and really, it’s borderline genius to incorporate it into the song. The band have put the EP together through months and months of emotional turmoil and the way it’s turned out is exceptional and stays on the same path they’ve taken since their formation with just minor tweaks to amplify their creative mindsets.

If you’ve not heard of Shlug before, then this EP will have introduced you to their artistic world of genre twisting elements, incorporating punk, industrial and hardcore into the layers of fuzzy chainsaw guitars, clattering drums and vocals that would rip you to shreds in mere minutes. If the experimental trio have one thing on their mind with Split The Grin, it’s to make a change to at least one person’s day with their honest to heart lyrical & instrumental genius.