Release Date: August 27th, 2021
Label: Church Road Records
For Fans Of: Fuck The Facts, Pig Destroyer, Napalm Death
After one album, Fucked and Bound are now Filth is Eternal—but thankfully, their sound has largely remained the same. Clocking in at just over 20 minutes, the sophomore effort—titled Love is a Lie, Filth is Eternal—is powerful, vicious and short. Across the twelve songs, the Seattle four-piece is ready to remind listeners why we fell for the band in the first place.
Their latest offering is an elevated version of their 2020 debut Suffrage. The renamed punks took everything that made that album such an attention-grabbing offering and hammered it home. The guitar tone is more aggressive, distorted to the point they sound more like screams than strings. The bass lines are bombastic, slicing through the noise to draw blood and attention. And vocalist Lisa Mungo is as intense as always, her voice drawing you in just to slap you back down—then drawing you back in again. The struggles of Suffrage—it’s occasional lack of direction and moments whether neither chaos nor melody reigned, creating an comfortable between world that satisfied no-one—have mostly been corrected. The result is a ferocious, non-stop hardcore bombardment that borders on sensory overload—in the best possible way.
Love is a Lie demonstrates a musical variety and a melodic nature the band previously alluded to but mostly unheard. There’s a sludgyness to the sound, reminiscent of acts like Fuck the Facts and Napalm Death. This muddying blurs the instruments together, flooding you with a sense of doom that never leaves the pit of your stomach. Album closer ‘Filth is Eternal’ is indicative of this. It’s longer duration lets the song slowly build, allowing the melodies to marinate and Mungo’s vocal cords to shred. Urgency may be a major weapon in Filth is Eternal’s arsenal, but these sparse slower moments increase the record’s overall punch.
Love is a Lie, Filth is Eternal has a deliberateness to its nature, a constant sense that the band knows exactly who they are and what they’re good at. It’s adventurous without ever straying too far, it’s the best of Suffrage without repeating the same mistakes.
Rating: 8/10
Recommended track: ‘Filth is Eternal’