Of Concrete Gods – ‘Hurt People Hurt People

Alt Metal

Independent Release

Release Date – October 13^th 2023

Of Concrete Gods are from the quaint Bedfordshire market town of Luton (Up the ‘Atters!). If you reside in the adjoining counties then you could probably hear them because they are properly loud. They say they are a grunge band, but I hear loads more in there like stoner and doom.

The volume is cranked up to 11 as ‘Her Embrace’ rattles the china with a huge Sabbathy riff that soon settles into a mighty grungy groove and some tidy lead playing from Simon Costello. The pace is mid-tempo but we get a whole faster and nastier on ‘Good Samaritan’ which bounces along on the banging bassline from Rich Davies who also provides some gruff vocals.

Davies provides the groove on ‘Chasing Cliches’ before a spidery riff comes and the masculine voice of singer Nik Scott sails over the top. Things get darker on ‘Death Of The Fool’ which starts with a military snare which gives way to another monumental groove then things get damn heavy at the midway point with the return of those guttural vocals before they settle back into the original groove and they finish off with a shed load of chugging riffage. Now final ‘Obsidian’ has been released as a single but here it’s an epic over 12 minutes long that starts with some melodic acoustic that builds in tension until 3 minutes in when the sound of the apocalypse bursts through on some crushing doom. This is immense but don’t be fooled by the ending after 8 minutes – you get a spacey extended outro for 4 minutes.

It’s all here big expensive riffs, massive grooves and melodic vocals. We go from mid-paced and doomy to punchy punk and dirty grunge which is all in your face loud. So, apparently, rock is dead in the UK – Ha! My arse! Of Concrete Gods is just one of a number of bands that are mixing it up with aggressive loud guitars and a battery of drums but also have huge melodies too. If you like newer bands like She Burns Red, Pryma, Circus 66, The Hot One Two etc then don’t waste any time in getting this EP. It’s red hot.

8/10 Smudge

Band –

Nick Scott – Vocals

James ‘Boulder’ Allder – Guitar

Simon Costello – Lead Guitar

Rich Davies – Bass/Backing Vocals

Paul Bearman – Drums

Track List –

1 – Her Embrace

2 – Good Samaritan

3 – Chasing Cliches

4 – Death Of A Fool

5 – Obsidian