A beast of a debut album from this New York State duo!
Brace yourselves, folks, because this record is HUGE. No, not in terms of popularity – not yet, anyway – but it sounds as intimidating and all-conquering as anything else you’ll hear this year. That’s all the more remarkable considering that SWAMPFOOT (yes, all capitals) are just a duo; one Cliff Hodson and one Jordan Greene, friends from Binghamton, NY, on a mission to combine just vocals, bass and drums into what’s been described as “a gigantic wall of aggression”. Well, mission accomplished, gentlemen.
Comparisons to fellow bass/drum duos Royal Blood and Death From Above 1979 are perhaps inevitable, but the truth is that neither of the aforementioned bands match SWAMPFOOT in terms of sheer velocity. On this self-titled debut, they take their sludgy riffs – and my goodness, they have riffs by the bucketload – and fearlessly feed them into a hardcore punk blender; the results really ought to rank at least halfway up the Richter scale. The opening ‘No Matter What’ is a prime example: bursting out of the traps like Motörhead at their fastest, it’s replete with Cliff’s Brendan Yates-esque vocals and a crunchy breakdown (of sorts!) towards the end.
They go into overdrive on the following ‘Master Plan’, which manages the trick of balancing almost thrash-level abrasion and intensity with a melodic vocal hook, and they keep up the pace with ‘No Point To Live’. ‘Aim Low’ sees them take their sound to, erm, new heights with its metallic bludgeon, and as for that Godzilla-size stomp of the outro….oooooh, it feels too damn good. There are echoes of Rage Against The Machine on the bulldozer riff of ‘Make Me Go Away’ and you can just picture a packed crowd roaring along to that “you’re not gonna make me go away” refrain.
The addictive stop-start groove of ‘Waste No Time (Do It)’ bears a resemblance to Turnstile’s recent efforts, and that’s no bad thing at all. They lean harder on their melodic side for ‘Stuck In My Waze’, but without sacrificing an iota of power, and then put the pedal to the metal once again for the relentless ‘One World’. There’s a sense that the band have a healthy disrespect for any idea of hardcore rules or boundaries; a fact underlined by a turbocharged cover of Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Wish’ that would surely get the Trent Reznor seal of approval. They then wrap things up with the granite-hewn power chords of ‘Boy That Fell’ and is that an actual guitar we can hear towards the end of the track? Hey, rules are there to be broken, remember?
Apparently, the duo recorded ‘SWAMPFOOT’ in analog style, without overthinking things, and their raw enthusiasm shines through in every note. Quite simply, across this record’s ten songs and 25 minutes, there is not a single weak link, and of all the bands we’ve heard so far this year, SWAMPFOOT seem the most likely to make huge strides in 2027. All that remains to be said is: guys, please make some UK dates happen soon – we’ll be waiting for you with open arms and seething pits. (Mosh pits, not armpits. Just so it’s clear.)
‘SWAMPFOOT’ is released on 13th November – pre-order it HERE.
- No Matter What
- Master Plan
- No Point To Live
- Aim Low
- Make Me Go Away
- Waste No Time
- Stuck In My Waze
- One World
- Wish
- Boy That Fell
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