Refiner – Mistake – EP/Single Review
8th May 2025Canadian metal outfit named Refiner Drops a 2-track EP (single, who knows) called Mistake—it’s either a bold or accurate title. Maybe it’s both (who knows)
The first track upside uʍop sounds like someone tripped and fell onto a cathedral made of drums. It’s not just loud—it’s the loud that makes you check if the oven’s still on, even though it’s unrelated. It reminded me of when I tried fixing my dad’s stereo with a fork and blew the fuses on the whole street. There were sirens.
The guitar is sometimes pretty and sometimes stabby. It lulls you in with some melancholic, echoey riffs, and then, you’re being attacked by a swarm of angry metal bees.
Drums sound like someone chasing a raccoon through a recycling centre. Intentional raccoon-chasing. There’s a bit around the middle where I swear I heard someone hitting a fridge with a pipe. Possibly art. Probably pain.
The vocals are like a cement mixer with emotions one minute and then a frightened pigeon trapped in a pipe organ. They overlap, clash, and harmonise—it’s like being yelled at by your past mistakes and future self simultaneously, and both are slightly drunk.
upside uʍop made me emotional for reasons I can’t explain.
The last track, “Mistake,” starts all sad and floaty, like the ghost of a broken vending machine, then explodes into a wall of sound so intense my upstairs neighbour banged on the ceiling. She’s 84. I consider that a compliment.
Imagine dropping your journal into a blender, then trying to sing what comes out. That is exactly what Refiner has managed to make in just 2 tracks.
Score 7/10
Track List
upside uʍop
Mistake
Label – Rottweiler Records
Release – 16th May 2025
