If you’re a fan of the weird and bizarre and you’re generally a bit fed up with the way of the world (let’s face it, who isn’t?) then Muscle Vest could be just the tonic. The band have honed a raucous noise rock meets punk meets hardcore sound that they describe as “noisy chaotic mess” and “nasty music for nice people.”
The quintet of Dave Rogers (vocals), Toby Dutton and Charlie Webb (guitars), Adam Kingsley (bass) and Arun Dhanjal (drums) modestly proclaim themselves “the best loud band in London (and maybe Essex too).” They hail from various corners of the UK but formed in 2018 through “an unslakeable desire to create wonky rock music.”
Our first taste of the band’s sound was their new single Solitary Life, which was released last week. It opens up with a piercing guitar sound before kicking into a vicious opening verse led by wild vocals and guitars supported by driving drums. Stabbing guitars kick in as it flows into a slightly more melodic section led by the vocals “Break away from the pack, I wanna climb a mountain, Hitchhike around Asia”, which feeds straight into another wild verse.
The second chorus ends with repeats of spoken vocals “Solitary life, Solitary life, Solitary life, Solitary.” The intensity builds into wild screamed vocals answered by stabbing guitars to bring the track to a heavy conclusion. Check it out in the video here:
That’s the first single to come from their third EP Hot Hot Hate, which will be released next Thursday (22 September). On the EP, Arun tells us: “Hot Hot Hate was recorded in a single day’s session in an attempt to be more representative of our live sound, so overall less emphasis on bells and whistles and more on pure fury. Steph did an amazing job recording so expect it to be a marginally less-polished facemelter.”
If you’re keen for more to get a taste of the band before the EP, then we firmly recommend tracks like A Slow Death, which very much does not live up to its name, and the delicious Stray, which features a superbly heavy guitar section and creepy vocals, from their 2021 EP Live Laugh Loathe.
Muscle Vest’s members enjoy similar bands but have tastes that are different enough for them to bring different influences to the table. Arun tells us that bands they take influence from include Pissed Jeans, Mclusky, Whores., Shellac, The Jesus Lizard, Failure, The Blood Brothers, Glassjaw, Nirvana, Daughters, Queens Of The Stone Age, Slowdive, Every Time I Die and Dinosaur Jr.
And on what inspires them to write music, Arun says: “The ugly music we make is fairly reflective of the dire state of the country and by extension the world, and fortunately for us the abominable state of modern society continues to prove very fruitful for us.
“Our songs also tend to be peppered with slices of the weird and bizarre that strike our curiosity. Regular subjects for our songs have included workplace exploitation, divorce, toxic masculinity, media exploitation, as well as Lovecraftian shapeshifters and the guy whose job it is for NASA to smell things before they go into space (I guarantee we’ve not made that up).”
There’s plenty more to come from Muscle Vest, with the new EP set for release next week followed by a tour across the country and even more new music around the corner.
Arun tells us: “One of our main goals for 2022 was/is to play more places outside of London. So with that in mind, we’ve got a UK tour in the works for November, which will be making its way up to Scotland and back. We’re also constantly trying to push forward with our music and have continued to write new material pretty much since HHH was finished, so we will hopefully look to make these new songs tangible too in the not-too-distant future.”
You can follow Muscle Vest on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and YouTube.
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