EP Review: Uncle Dave’s Biscuit Barrel – The Curse of Thirst

The Breakdown

One of the happiest stories in metal is that these guys are back playing and releasing awesome music

– 8.5

It’s not all chugging rhythms and hilarity. There is substance behind these songs and a drop of Egyptian menace weaved through too. With song titles like ‘Satan’s Evil Bed Sock’ and ‘Norman The Goat Boy Of Mykonos’ it may be easy to overlock the work gone in to this EP. The blackened opener ‘The Curse Of The Thirst’, the thrasher ‘Norman The Goat Boy Of Mykonos’ and the riff-tastic ‘Satan’s Evil Bed Sock’

The EP was introduced earlier this year with the bands single ‘Which One Am Me?’ a humorous drunken retelling done with a barrage of guitars. A heavy barrage too. Enough to keep many a metal head happy and when not headbanging the witty lyrics are easily as entertaining. ‘Norman The Goat Boy Of Mykonos’ is highly inventive whilst giving Drew Lowe a moment to himself as he sets fire to his fretboard.

In fact Lowe impresses constantly happy to sit back ripping a riff or two but when its time to shine, shine he does. Fast paced runs, a spot of tapping and screaming bends the strings know no mercy as we drags distorted melodies out of them. His place as a new comer to this fairly long running band is clearly cemented especially on this EP.

The riff-tastic ‘Satan’s Evil Bed Sock’ is a groovy number with Mike Trevor’s whispering throaty evil vocals scraping and growling crossing that important metal bridge of sounding harsh yet understandable. The band describe their sound as having, “hints of Slayer and Exodus – lyrically, you will get Monty Python vibes”.

Drummer Dave Allon dominates his kit double bass drum excellence which pushes these tracks up to 11 and right into the face of any listener. It’s not a hugely fast album but the relentless drum punishment give each track a good groove propelling the metal. As a trio these guys don’t half make some noise. A quieter section on ‘Norman…. doesn’t last as Lowe pulls epic out the bag on his solo. The whole EP is thunderous from the start to the ending.

That ending being final track ‘Froggy On A Stick’ which is more frog then band. Blink and you miss it. However you will be pressing play again and enjoying the tracks again and again each time hearing something new, either within the lyrics or as the sounds in each track unfurl themselves to familiar ears the true sinister beauty is heard.

Check out the track Norman the Goat Boy Of Mykonos, below