Beastmilk – Climax

Although primarily a goth/post-punk outfit, Finland’s Beastmilk draw heavily upon the tropes of extreme metal; indeed, the initial buzz around the band upon their emergence owed much to the attention of Darkthrone’s Fenriz, who praised their 2010 demo White Stains on Black Tape. Nonetheless, it’s taken three years to produce a debut proper, and Climax sounds suitably accomplished, a thundering hybrid of nightmarish goth and screeching, reverb-laden black metal riffage.

At their best, as on the pounding You Are Now Under Our Control, Beastmilk marry these influences in a genuinely thrilling way, sounding something like an absurdly overdriven Joy Division circa Unknown Pleasures; it’s not subtle, and it bears the stamp of its producer – Converge’s Kurt Ballou – in every groove. While the record’s generic hybridisation masks a slightly formulaic edge to their songwriting, that’s more than atoned for by the sheer angst-ridden energy on display here. [Sam Wiseman]