PIST – Hailz

8th November 2019 0 By Donk

For several years I’ve known of APF Records. I’ve shared the stage with a few acts from the label and I may be a little biased in this review of PISTs new album Hailz, but that’s because I know that Fieldy (Andrew Field, aka APF Records) is so passionate and particular about the bands on his label that anything that carries the APF logo will be unique, high quality and above all else, fucking heavy! Lets just say this album ticks all the criteria that meets an APF Record and then some!

Lets do this!

PIST released an EP (Riffology) in 2014 and saw the band labelled as a stoner-doom band with heavy, slow catchy riffs and followed it up with Rhythm & Booze a year later of the same vibe. Hailz takes the band in a different direction leaning more towards, in their words, a ‘heavy metal, rock and roll band who listen to a fair bit of Black metal and Punk’ and that is certainly true with this album. Wreck sees a banging heavy metal intro riff before assaulting the ears with an almost Uada feeling blast beat which then slows in to another metal section with a tasty bass solo section (that tone was bang on by the way!).

Mind Rotter gives us a psychedelic intro that has a hell of a lot of emotion emanating from it which leads us into some more classic sounding huge metal riffage before exploding back in to some more black metal sections. The blend of the two really work well. I think if it was any lesser musicians it might not work as well but the guys in PIST can write and execute bloody well!

A great example of how well this blend of multi-genres works is on my favorite track, Fools Gave Chase. We have stoner elements, a rock ballad section accompanied by a killer lead from guitarist John, those fast black metal sections still pop in and out and it works, it really does. It’s a tasty change from the standard verse, chorus, verse, bridge that is seen in a lot of music released these days. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love a tasty breakdown and ‘standard’ song structure but I’m loving this album. It really keeps you guessing on what is coming next.

The album has a lot of surprises, but you need to listen to it for those! I will say this though, not only does it have catchy riffs along a roller-coaster ride but it also has feeling and emotion both lyrically and vocally so grab some headphones, crack open a beer and pour a chaser, stick a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on your forehead and enjoy what is without doubt a fucking banging album.

Well done gents!
Score 9/10 – SUPPORT LOCAL BANDS!! 😉
Track List
1.Ex-Nihilo
2.Wreck
3.Mind Rotter
4.Fools Gave Chase
5.If I Was You…
6.Strangle The Sun (feat. Elephant Tree)
7.Skin Your God