It’s generally not a great thing when a band sticks out so obviously from their generic peers, but in the case of Los Angeles metallers Twitching Tongues, it’s an exciting prospect. Drawing heavily on the early 90’s New York sound of Life Of Agony and Type O Negative, their third album ‘Disharmony’ has delivered an absolutely perfect balance of hardcore and metal across 10 thoroughly bruising tracks.

Front to back, this is the type of record that pops your bottom lip and has you head down and nodding at the very least. The title track is a top notch example of how to blend speed-riffing and brooding intensity across a single track, whilst ‘Insincerely Yours’ proves that doom doesn’t always need to be slow. Where previous record ‘In Love There is No Law’ had a lyrical focus that touched on relationships and love, ‘Disharmony’ takes it a step or two further with heart-on-sleeve titles like ‘Love Conquers None’ and ‘The End Of Love’. There’s nothing delicate or touching about it though – ideas are met with as much malice and contempt as you’d expect from any death metal band.

In a year that has been decidedly average for metal records (particularly from the ‘big’ bands) Twitching Tongues have made a great case for being allowed into the fold. Expect them to go from “ones to watch” to major players very rapidly in 2016.

4/5

Disharmony by Twitching Tongues is out now on Metal Blade Records.

Twitching Tongues links: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp

Words by Rob Fearnley.