Mhaol - Gender Studies EP (TULLE) 
Release Date: 29th October 2021
Praise the lord but this is a bit special. Irish collective Mhaol (pronounced Male according to the press blurb) hit hard and relentlessly on the 'Gender Studies' EP which opens with a title track so unrelenting in its stride as the churning guitars, clatteringly mechanical drums and dead-eyed guitars create the kind of wake-up call the world needs right now. 'Desperation' continues with the same energy, channelling the likes of Sleater Kinney and the Pixies through their dirty sounding guitars and throbbing bass. The delicious sounding 'Kinder Beuno' is a 51 second garage-punk slice of furiousness that leads in to 'Laundries', a track full if impending doom and thudding inevitability which descends in to hectic ferocity.
This EP captures the sound of a band letting out their primal scream at a broken society through battered melodies, broken beats and brilliantly unfiltered emotion. 'No One Ever Talks To Us' is the perfect example of this as Mhaol sound like a stripped down version of the Long Blondes who have been awake for 37 hours and forced to hang out at a Wetherspoons for the entire time. Closing track 'Oro Se Do Bheatha Bhaile' is the band's take on a traditional Irish song and without knowing the original it's hard to compare but this has a dark, forboding, funereal feel to it that has tones of processions and deep, gutteral mourning to it. I have to admit that this EP came a little out of the blue for me but boy am I glad it did. Outstanding stuff.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/mhaol