ALBUM REVIEW: Haest – Belabour (TNSRecords/No Time Records)
Haest are a four-piece doom punk band from Hastings and Belabour is their second full-length album after 2020’s debut Anomie.
They take their cues from hardcore, doom, sludge and noise, among other genres, but have come up with a sound that’s very much their own.
Haest feature members of Matilda’s Scoundrels, The Barracks, Wizard Fight and The Dead Anyways. I hadn’t heard of them until last year’s International Split LP on TNSrecords, but they sound like a slower, heavier version of Idles, and I like them a lot.
Belabour can mean ‘to attack someone physically or verbally’ or ‘to argue a point in excessive detail’, both common problems of our social media obsessed world. That’s fitting, as Haest’s lyrics discuss how we are who we are pretending to be, constructing ‘perfect’ lives for ourselves on our various digital accounts.
Song titles like In Cunt Tropicana Drinks Are Double Priced, He Still Hasn’t Grown Into His Left Ear and Mr Sad Man, Bring Me Your Cheese are chosen randomly from a list of absurd quotes collected by the band while on the road.
That’s where they have honed their craft, playing support slots with the likes of Cro-Mags, Skindred, Pears, Clowns, Discharge and Subhumans, and theirs is a star that’s obviously on the rise.
This album – full of big, brooding riffs, coarse vocals and powered by a bludgeoning rhythm section – is one which will slowly work its way into your consciousness. It’s hard to pick a standout track, but that’s because they’re all good, and the record needs to be listened to as a whole.
There are 11 tracks in all, and by the time you reach the end of epic closer Jellyfish Are Just Wet Ghosts it’ll leave you wanting more. Check out Haest’s back catalogue on Bandcamp HERE. 8/10.
