You'll need to come up for air...
We'll never forget our first live run in with this band. Hevy Festival, 2011. Many of us were faced with a tough decision to make in the bizarre POLAR vs Polar Bear Club set-clash one afternoon in the serene Kent countryside. While those that chose the latter found them to be a fine choice to enjoy while the sun came out, those that took to the murky gloom of the Rock Sound & Macbeth Stage to witness POLAR had a very different experience indeed. Masterfully savage and blisteringly intense, the Guildford quintet came out fighting and expertly proved just how buzz-worthy they really were. It's with this raw energy for performance still in mind that we eagerly gave their debut album, Iron Lungs a listen.
Let's just say we were right to brace ourselves. The record flies off the starting line at incinerating speed as Sick Old Buzzard bursts into a frenzied blur of fast punk rhythms and hardcore screaming. The precise blend of genres that unfolds brings likenesses to old school Gallows in some tracks (Bruiser, Broken Bones); as well as a similarity to the ballsy-as-fuck attitudes lacing the groove-spliced hardcore of TRC and Trash Talk in others (Lifeboats, For King And Country). Melodies reign, but do so whilst smashing bottles over your head and giving you a wedgie. Yes, brutality is the order of every day in POLAR's diary.
Of course, it's not just the weight of the instrumentals that define this brutality- it's in every gutteral wail that accompanies them. Frontman Adam Woodford shreds his vocal chords red raw with one furious altercation after another, pushing each track to the limit of vehemence and potency. Complimented by the rabble-rousing gang vocals, the heat of live performance seems to pulse through every note with a passion that can transcend the recording studio and still reach us in our homes. Just imagine what it'd be like to stand front row at one of their shows. You'd better not mind having your face melted off. If you do, then maybe try shutting your eyes like Indiana Jones does in that scene in Raiders of The Lost Ark.