Devils Henchmen – Built By Hate (EP)

Devils Henchmen – Built By Hate (EP)

Before I had even heard anything by Liverpool based trio the Devils Henchmen, I saw them play at a festival in Wakefield and talking to them after their set I was astonished by their playing and songwriting at the age of 14. Fast forward to 2020 and an old saying of “Cometh the hour, cometh the man” is very apt due to the strength of the performance on new EP Built By Hate.

The four tracks here see them play a lot heavier, point proven by opener ‘Dark Faces’. A laid back intro is blasted away as all hell breaks loose for a glorious grind of abrasive riffing from Joe Doolan and his vocals are a lot more commanding than of old. Some inventive time changes midway caught me off guard by some over the top kick drumming from Daniel Adkins and nimble bass guitar from Elliott Kyriakides. The title track lives up to its name courtesy of breakneck thrash metal passages and more earthshaking drums. A brutal headbanging midsection heads off into a pit opening outro.

The insanity levels are kept high by the rage of ‘Take My Hand And Die’ as they race out of the starting blocks once more and they lay down a metronomic pound that eases off slightly as it ends on a full on mosh. The anger flows with aplomb throughout final track ‘Dissolution’. The riffs are catchy but still have enough wrecking ball power to match the drum assault.

Built By Hate EP track listing :-

Dark Faces.

Built By Hate.

Take My Hand And Die.

Dissolution.

Devils Henchmen band line up :-

Joe Doolan – Guitar/lead vocals.

Daniel Adkins – Drums/backing vocals.

Elliott Kyriakides – Bass guitar.