Hated Related - Depressive Repulsive
Hated Related is a punk rock outfit from Durban, South Africa. Not too long ago, they dropped a new EP, called Depressive Repulsive, on Drusa Records. It's a powerful EP, full of tasty punk music.
Hated Related
The band is composed of Barron Harley (guitar, vocals), Ali Wray (bass, vocals), and Andrew Groenewald (drums). According to the band, “Hated Related is the product of our love for music and rock and roll in general. All band members have two jobs, Hated Related being their primary love and the other job is the 8 - 5 peasant endurance race.”
Hated Related goes on to say, “Our aim is to create music that is authentic and reality based while keeping an artistic form to try and emulate the true nature of humanity and our day to day lives.”
Basically, Hated Related churns out potent Brit-indie-influenced punk with large doses of Detroit proto-punk leavened with ‘90s flavors of emo and hardcore-lite. My description may not sound like much, but this band slaps, really laying it down.
The EP contains six-tracks. First up is “So Long,” a song about saying good-bye to love. It opens on grinding dirty guitars riding a raw crunching rhythm. I love the vocals, which remind me of The Kinks covering Blink-182, only more visceral and darker.
“Self Resentment Blues” rides a muscular chunking rhythm topped by those grunged-out guitars, exuding primitive sonic energy – uncooked and inflamed.
“Debt Collector” features stripped down harmonics full of tight glazed guitars, raw and scraping, especially on the chorus. Harmonic shifts give the tune rough and tough sonic swings, as the cavernous bass line and guitar echo each other.
“No Sunrise” travels on gut-wrenchingly muddy guitars and contains one of the all-time great opening lines: “If it don’t make dollars / Then it don’t make sense / But we don’t make any dollars at all / I been spending my time on the repentance / Been left feeling really small.”
“Self Resentment Blues” rides a muscular chunking rhythm topped by those grunged-out guitars, exuding primitive sonic energy – uncooked and inflamed. Nonchalant, slacker vocals hit just the right tones, particularly when they go high with whining colors. “Piss Outside” gallops on concentrated squeezing guitars, angry and snarling, as the vocals growl out the acrid lyrics.
“When I get home, get off this shift / I'ma smoke myself completely senseless / I DON'T CARE, HEY! / And if I wake up late and I miss my bus and I tell my boss to fuck himself well / I DON'T CARE, HEY!”
The title track closes the EP, opening on a lightly strumming guitar accompanied by despondent vocals full of urgent lamentations. A skintight metallic guitar enters, radiating piercing strident colors.
Hated Related have hewn a grand EP, rife with primeval soundscapes and beau coup sonic impetus. This is another band that some major label needs to sign.
