It’s been a few short months since Brooklyn’s finest sludge punk/slop rock band released their debut album, but this notoriously hard working band have not let up and have delivered another little cracker. Building on the grungy indie influences of ‘Sleepy Kids’, Haybaby have ventured a few steps further into darker territories on ‘Blood Harvest’, which maintains the band’s loose feel, while tightening up on the emotion.

‘Stupid’ opens with a laid back bass line and is a pretty simple track with a histrionic riff and a downbeat vocal; it’s the one song where Leslie Hong and Co don’t really extend their artistic limits, sounding a bit like a leftover from the album. However, things immediately pick up with the sinister tension of ‘Joke/Rope’, boasting a cool bass groove and meandering guitar lines, but as the guitars get heavier and it gathers intensity there’s a lot more bite; good track.

There’s an engrossing air of melancholy to the intimate vocal of ‘Kramer/Dreams’; Leslie’s voice starts out a couple of notches above a whisper, but gets bolder as the song progresses, eventually descending into a wailing lament, the jaunty guitar lines an interesting counterpoint. The rockier tempo of ‘What It Is’ then cranks everything up to eleven, a festival of noise set to a killer bass line.

The real tour de force though, is the epic ‘Pig’, with its dirty great riff and harsh drawled vocals pounding away at the senses. It’s quite a departure from the indie aspects of their sound, the track simmering with an air of tension, before building to a finale of massive riffing and a voice dripping with pain.

On the whole, ‘Blood Harvest’ is the sound of a band pushing its creative boundaries and delivering in style with another quality release. Cool band, great record.

4/5

‘Blood Harvest EP’ by Haybaby is out on now on Tiny Engines.

Haybaby links: Website|Facebook|Twitter

Words by Edward Layland (@EdwardLayland)