LISTEN: Whitney Houston’s Crypt – Whitney Houston’s Crypt 7″

I wish there was some part of my life that gave me an excuse to have a good hard scream. I reckon it’d be healthy. I reckon I’d stop grinding my teeth. There’s just not enough opportunity in our lives to get really fucking dramatic – but on this new self-titled 7”, Newcastle’s Whitney Houston’s Crypt have snatched theirs with both hands.

A thick red mist hangs over these three songs. You gotta just shut your eyes and hold on tight for a lot of it. The wonky guitar on first track ‘Twosome’s Threesomes’ gives you something to grab onto – it’s reassuringly catchy – but then a drum break gives way to a period of even more intense screaming and you’re back in the mire again. They’re mining a rich emotional vein, everything is covered: angry, pissed off, mad as hell, despair, rage, fuck you, etc.

These feelings are never more brutal than on single ‘Hatoful Boyfriend’, which gives short sharp bursts of repetitive guitar and strangled, gasping shouts on a track that is short and sharp and bursting with, well, hate.  Closer ‘Michael Hotchips’ (yeah, they’re also not taking themselves too seriously, thank God) is the most musically hardcore track, with that fast thunderous drumming and bombastic teeth gnashing and wailing vocals to match the guitars sliding out of control like they’re gonna spin right off the planet. But, miraculously, it all holds together until the final shuddering stop.

You can get the Whitney Houston’s Crypt 7″ through Vacant Valley right now. They’re coming to the end of the launch tour for this EP (sorry), but I’ll be seeing them in Brisbane at the last show on 9 April at Trainspotters, with Clever, Twinrova and Rebel Yell. Hope it’s nuts.

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