The Sontaran Experiment

Named after a storyline from Doctor Who, as we surely all realised, the Sontaran Experiment manages to stretch three tracks out for 58 uncomfortable minutes. Crushingly heavy, achingly slow doom-rock is interspersed with bouts of Tourette’s and passages of frantic guitar that escalate into near white noise. Like walking through very cold, deep water, late at night, dressed in two pairs of jeans and a woollen jumper, this makes for slow and deliberately unpleasant progress. Every riff takes a near eternity to realise itself and any attempt at moshing is more reminiscent of nodding off then jerking yourself awake again. Only the frequent misanthropic bellows provide a focal point. It's a work of competent belligerence, but the most remarkable moments are when SE decide to kick into blast-beat mode: not only due to the accompanying sense of relief, but also because they are really rather good at it. [Chris Cusack]