Album Review: The Matador - 'Destroyer'

Gold Coast outfit The Matador have been kicking around up north for a number of years now, polishing off their brand of noisy, abrasive yet somehow ambient metallic hardcore. Their latest release ‘Destroyer’ shows that all this polishing has been working well for them, as this thing sounds as crisp as a beautiful winters day…but still as ugly as the face you pull when you get smacked in the chops with the cold breeze that goes along with it.

This offering, the first of a two-part album (the next aptly titled ‘Creator’) sees the band take the listener through seven tracks of seemingly Converge/Botch/Coalesce influenced hardcore, with their own spin on each of these influences cues.

A brooding start to the record flows straight into the mid paced charging march of ‘Rodinia’, a track laced with heavy chugging guitars, tight chest thumping drumming and the throat tearing vocals that singer Nathan Wyner has become known for. The album flows through its tracks with seamless connectivity, rolling us straight into the title track and lead single: the brutal ‘Destroyer’, a song full of all the elements you could hope for from music in this style, emotion, anger, heavy parts, ferocious dissonant riffs and a hell of a few hooky riffs. The full-length gives us a brief reprieve to catch our breath before heading through the final three tracks, with equal crushing persistence as the initial blast.

A combination of crisp clean recording, expert mixing by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou and mastering by Alan Douches gives this record the perfect tonal quality that you would expect from music of this ilk. The Matador find themselves here with a great little chunk of the two part record, which hopefully is followed up by an equally heavy, brooding and crushing album tonally, and the songs to suit.