The first ever live band that I saw were these guys all the way back on the Deftones ‘Around the Fur’ tour in 1998 which was my first experience of a horrifically insane mosh pit in which I lost both my shoes by the time the opening track ‘I’ve seen my fate’ was over. I also had chance to see Grady Avenell sing live with Will Haven before he left on the joint headline tour with Crowbar in 2006. I can quite happily say that these 2 concerts were easily up there in the greatest gigs of my life, so to say that I was looking forward to this album would be a massive understatement. It seems that I am not alone in my passion for this band as many bands today can name Will Haven as an inspiration and influence, so it comes with great pleasure to say that it’s an ABSOLUTE CORKER of an album!!

The first track leads you into a false sense of security as it builds up slowly and could easily be an intro track of a Mogwai album but that does not last long as when the opening lyrics of ‘When the walls close in’ kick in you know we are back to business and now with Grady back at the helm it seems his voice has only got better as is proven on this track and ‘Midas Secret’. Now with the addition of a new keyboardist there is a whole new sinister edge to the band which for me makes this album the best since ‘WHVN’. In particular ‘Lives Left To Wither’ and ‘Harvesting Our Burdens’ show off this new evil side to the band with the first of the 2 tracks starting with a choral song that chills to the spine and leads into one of the most crushing riffs I think I have ever heard on record. It is not long until we get to see them alongside our good friends RSJ and I really hope that we get a good selection of songs from this record as they far outshine anything the band have done for a great number of years!

Stand out Track: Lives left to Wither