New Blood: Sikth

An aural assault from Watford may not sound the most pleasant way to spend an evening in with the stereo, but the industrious Borough on the north side of London has offered up something of a treat to the metal-loving world. Sikth, with a prescient brand of technical hardcore, are at once a mind-bending indulgence and an air-drummer's fevered nightmare.

Now starting to breathe heavily down the necks of the UK audience after the essentially prescribed spell of dominance in Japan, it is easy to become dazed by the surface level convolutions of Sikth; and it would also be a grave oversight. The time changes are numerous and the accompanying feast of entangled guitar riffs serve only to heighten the listener's instinct that this is indeed a mighty machine of metal virtuosity at work. Tracks such as Pussyfoot from 2003 LP release 'The Trees are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild' perfectly illustrate what so thrust the attentions of industry suitors in the direction the English six-piece as far back as 2000.

The vocal performances of the band are what give Sikth this edge of freshness: sprung and erratic, one moment in an incandescence of metal fury then jerked back to flighty, absurd and primal utterances. The metal fraternity saw fit to dub it under the increasing redundant rule of sub-genres as 'Weirdcore'.

Wikipedia, in their omniscient expertise, describe a typical Watford scene thusly; "A look around the pond (a large stagnant street pond fronted by bars and nightclubs) at closing time, you will generally see numerous drunks sat on the pond wall, often fouling the water in some way."

With new album 'Death of a Dead Day' on the shelves already and a UK tour underway, Sikth's is not a well to be knowingly befouled.