Biography
Mastiff formed as an extreme metal band in Hull, United Kingdom. Their raw style blends sludge and doom metal with industrial post-hardcore and crust punk. The group describes itself as "a miserable band from a miserable town," and this outlook fueled the nihilistic rage on their 2016 debut album Wrank as well as 2019's Plague, which addressed the violence, addiction, and abuse people direct at each other and themselves. In 2021 they issued Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth, an album centered on overconsumption and environmental destruction.
The five-piece assembled in 2013 with Jim Hodge handling vocals, Phil Johnson and James Andrew Lee on guitars, Daniel Dolby on bass, and Michael Shepherd on drums. Mastiff's rhythm section also performs with Thy Catafalque. Following two self-released EPs and a demo, the band constructed 94 Studio and used it to cut and issue their first full-length, Wrank, in 2016. Coverage in the underground metal press highlighted the record's unrelenting bleakness. While supporting the album on a U.K. tour, they captured and self-released the six-track live EP Bork through Bandcamp.
Other projects kept several members occupied, so Mastiff could not complete a studio follow-up until Plague arrived in 2019. The album was tracked live in the room with all vocals performed at once and without any overdub separation. Its dense, grinding attack merged doom, sludge, metal, hardcore, and industrial elements. When the 2020 global pandemic halted touring, the band secured a distribution agreement with eOne and then released its third album, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth, in August 2021.
The five-piece assembled in 2013 with Jim Hodge handling vocals, Phil Johnson and James Andrew Lee on guitars, Daniel Dolby on bass, and Michael Shepherd on drums. Mastiff's rhythm section also performs with Thy Catafalque. Following two self-released EPs and a demo, the band constructed 94 Studio and used it to cut and issue their first full-length, Wrank, in 2016. Coverage in the underground metal press highlighted the record's unrelenting bleakness. While supporting the album on a U.K. tour, they captured and self-released the six-track live EP Bork through Bandcamp.
Other projects kept several members occupied, so Mastiff could not complete a studio follow-up until Plague arrived in 2019. The album was tracked live in the room with all vocals performed at once and without any overdub separation. Its dense, grinding attack merged doom, sludge, metal, hardcore, and industrial elements. When the 2020 global pandemic halted touring, the band secured a distribution agreement with eOne and then released its third album, Leave Me the Ashes of the Earth, in August 2021.
Albums
Singles
