Album Review: Dashwood - Hurt/Heal EP

AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO… THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS
In the first edition of our new feature, "An Essential Guide To..." Already Heard's Christopher Smith takes a look at the history of Thirty Second To Mars, their discography and their best tracks.

FESTIVAL PREVIEW: DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2013
We look forward to next weekends Download Festival with a series of interviews with some
of the bands playing the three-day metal and rock fest.

INTERVIEW: THE WONDER YEARS
Having been one of the highlights of the Slam Dunk Festival, we caught up with guitarist
Matt Brasch of The Wonder Years to discuss 'The Greatest Generation' and more.

TOUR TALES: A WORLD DEFINED
We find out what Derby five piece A World Defined got up to on their recent UK tour with Anavae and The Hype Theory in our latest edition of "Tour Tales."

ALREADY HEARD TRACK GUIDE: BOSTON MANOR - HERE/NOW EP
Here at Already Heard we love to highlight exciting new UK bands and North West pop punk band Boston Manor are just that. We recently caught up with Harry Cox from the band to give us a track-by-track breakdown of ‘Here/Now.'

FIVES: MUST HEAR JUNE ALBUM RELEASES
The Already Heard team highlight and pick 5 albums we think you should hear this month.

ALREADY HEARD RECOMMENDS: NOW, VOYAGER
Hailing from Brussels, Belgium Now, Voyager describe themselves as a “rock band who
play metal” but having played shows alongside The Devil Wears Prada, Bury Tomorrow and Violet, they fit nicely in the ever-growing metalcore scene. we talk to vocalist Nabil “Billy” Sanaullah to find out more about the band, their new single, their future plans, the comparisons between playing shows in the UK and in Belgium and more.

VERSUS: ANTI FLAG - 'UNDERGROUND NETWORK' VS 'THE TERROR STATE'
To celebrate their 20th anniversary, political punks Anti Flag are the featured band in this edition of "Versus."

Album Review: Dashwood - Hurt/Heal EP

UK band Dashwood deliver us 6 tracks of hardcore, punk, and quite frankly, extremely angry and pissed off in your face tracks on their debut EP.

Whilst being a debut, it still feels more like a demo. The production isn’t as good as it could be. I understand “punk” does seem fitted to a more lo-fi kind of sound, but songs like this that are supposed to be in your face and pushing you the fuck about, should still have better production value to help bring across this brutality. I think better production on this EP would give this review a different outcome.

The vocals sound and do remind me of early Frank Carter (ex-Gallows). They’re full of grit, anger and that punk mentality which will really bring the roof crashing down in any live circumstance. In addition the bands riffs also give way to an early Gallows sound.

Fans of UK punk and hardcore should also give this EP a spin if they’re looking for something else to try out.

Overall, the songs on offer are just above average. There’s nothing significantly special about them that makes them stand out, but there’s definitely foundations here that can be worked on to truly hone their own sound in the years to come.

3/5

‘Hurt/Heal EP’ by Dashwood is out now on Pornography For Cowards.

Dashwood links: Facebook|Tumblr|Bandcamp

Words by Michael Brown.