Pretty sure I’ve said this before, perhaps many times, but I cannot understand people who only can indulge in happy music or things devoid of any negativity. I can’t handle when I meet people like that in real life, and while I wish them no ill will, I just feel like I’m not around a genuine person. Frown for once!

I never have to worry about that with UK sludge/hardcore crushers Mastiff, and even an EP from them comes off as a goddamn miserable punch in the chest. That EP is “For All the Dead Dreams,” so you know right off the bat, you’re not going to be smiling at all. Unless it’s from morbid humor. Over five tracks and about 15 minutes, the band—vocalist Jim Hodge, guitarists Phil Johnson and James Lee-Ross, bassist Dan Dolby, drummer Mike Shepherd—totally pummels you, dragging you through tar containing glass shards, basking in self-deprecation, and leaving everything lying in a pile of ash.

“Soliloquy” immediately pounds away, a warped sample frying brain wiring, devastation then unloading with a hardcore boot to your chest. Guitars burn as the force gets more intense, Hodge wailing, “Bury me in a shit-filled grave,” which certainly puts an exclamation point at the end of this one. “Rotting Blossoms” floods with feedback, the pace launching as throaty wails bruise, the pace feeling downright skull mashing. “For all the dead dreams … the mass worship of this constant disgrace,” Hodge wails as sludgy heaviness buries you under the earth. “Decimated Graves” is burly and massive, the drums blasting as a beastly force slithers across the earth. Thick, destructive seismic waves rumble beneath you as the playing lays waste, slowly battering into submission. “A Story Behind Every Light” destroys, howls wrenching, guttural madness flattening as Hodge confesses, “Don’t rely on me, I can’t be trusted.” Heat swarms as the breakdown scars, blasting into oblivion. Closer “Corporeal” lashes with speed, the howls crushing as the drums powder bones into paste. An unforgiving force gallops, smearing blood, the wails punching holes before only ash remains.

“For All the Dead Dreams” is an absolute bloodbath in misery and misanthropy, five tracks that properly react with acidic anger and frustration over a world in authoritarian decay. Mastiff always bring the might, but this 15-minute burst ups the ante, leaving scorch marks behind. This is a fittingly volatile collection, one that will come off morbidly violent live and hopefully bridge to LP 3.

For more on the band, go here: https://mastiffhchc.bandcamp.com/music

To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://deathwishinc.com/collections/church-road

Or here (Europe): https://www.deathwishinc.eu/collections/church-road

For more on the label, go here: https://churchroadrecords.com/