Spring King - Demons

If the tales are to be believed, Tarek Musa records most if not all of his Spring King material in a crummy bathroom slash studio, where bathtubs are traded for amplifiers, a toilet for a production desk. There isn’t exactly a tile-bouncing reverberation circuiting his new ‘Demons’ EP, but if there’s any perfect explanation for the rush of energy that defines the release, it’s this. It’s claustrophobic rock ’n roll - nervous energy abounding and mutating into an almighty clatter.

Calling ‘Demons’ “rowdy” isn’t dishonest, but it’s also unfair to label it a lad-rock tag-along. There’s poise and posture to the guttural madness of it all.

At least some semblance of structure finds room in the shout frenzy of ‘Better Man’, but for the most part it’s a 90mph zoom of a nostalgia trip. ‘Let’s Ride’, the EP closer, takes things to ridiculous limits. “Faster! Faster!” the pack shout, and together they’re clearly on a determined mission to push boundaries. They’re either going to crash headfirst into the nearest hazard, or they’ll speed by into stardom - Spring King aren’t really considering the options. They’re just going for it.