Hunger Artist.

There’s something strangely satisfying about downloading a single to find that the two songs it contains combine to form nearly half an hour of music. Not quite in the same league as the iTunes single of the week is it? Either it’s going to be something epic and full of riffs/keyboard solos/pan pipes or it’s going to be a pile of instrumental crap. The exciting part is that until you’ve listened to all of it, you just won’t know which.

Luckily, Hunger Artist’s debut Senescence/Magister Ludi swings more to the prog end of things, with riffs the sounds like Rush and Black Sabbath having passionate sex in a grotty rehearsal space somewhere (but sadly no pan pipes). That tortured and ill constructed metaphor is basically trying to tell you that Hunger Artist blend not only doomy Sabbathesque riffs and the extended and the instrumental nature of prog but also bring a more hardcore sound evident in the vocals and tortured, buzz saw guitars that define much of the record.

Now, much as I like the sound of my own voice (or should that be ‘reading my own words’?) I’m not going to spend too much time dissecting each track. While Senescence/Magister Ludi is longer than some albums I own, the fact that it is made up of only two tracks would turn any attempt to break it down into an exercise in musical critique that you most certainly won’t be bothered to read.

Also, as I alluded to above, one of the main plus sides to this release is that the songs are long and complex enough to make them worth listening too and discovering yourself.

Overall though there is some brilliant musicianship here (most of Senescence/Magister Ludi’s 27 minutes and 50 seconds is instrumental). Straight up hardcore style riffs give way to the aforementioned Sabbath aping passages seamlessly (with one moment about a third into 'Magister Ludi' ever sounding almost thrash), all accompanied by a drum kit being ritually murdered in the background. Yes there are long passages of repeated music, recurring riffs and drone like dissonance but like all good instrumental sections (see my love of ‘Goodbye Skyharbour’) the music still manages to keep you interested.

My one real gripe would be there isn’t enough contrast. Large passages of each song could be interchanged and stylistically, you wouldn’t notice a thing. This may be the band’s first release but I hope this trend doesn’t reappear in any future EPs of LPs where it might drag.

(Hunger Artist are currently recording their debut full length release in Southampton. You can download Senescence/Magister Ludi here)