Mastiff – Deprecipice (Review)

Mastiff are a hardcore/sludge metal band from the UK and this is their fourth album.

Both 2019’s Plague and 2021’s Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth were enjoyable slabs of ugly sludgy hardcore heaviness, so it’s great to have a new Mastiff album in our lives. Deprecipice contains 34 minutes of material, and sees Mastiff stepping up their game once more.

Deprecipice is a journey into bleak intensity and crushing despair-driven heaviness. Mastiff are just getting heavier and nastier, while also developing their songwriting and style to be more direct and – whisper it – approachable, (although this is extremely relative – the Mastiff sound is still not a friendly, welcoming one. Deprecipice is here to destroy and brutalise).

Drawing deeper from the hardcore side of their sound, Deprecipice wields an array of murderous riffs like weapons, and amidst the furious carnage you’ll find more massive breakdowns than before. Mastiff haven’t let go of their corrosive sludge, humungous Swedish death metal, and blackened grind influences, but these are incorporated in a subservient way into their blistering hardcore assault.

The music’s focused rage has been channelled into an increased number of barbed hooks, showcasing Mastiff’s ability to write a good song. Alongside the hardcore components this aspect of the music has been brought more into the foreground too; you wouldn’t call Deprecipice radio friendly, but it is more accessible, (relatively speaking), than Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth, despite its still brutal nature.

If a savage helping of brutally harsh heaviness and raw emotive heartbreak is your thing, then Deprecipice is for you. Don’t miss out on Mastiff’s latest if you’re a fan of bands like Nails, Converge, Trap Them, All Pigs Must Die, etc.