Welsh rockers Taint aren’t easy to peg down in an easy generic niche. They’ve got elements of sludge, stoner, hardcore and basic heavy metal music, influences which they parry into a cohesive, distinct sound. Big, memorable riffs, an underlying sense of groove and shouty, uncompromising vocals that fly the hardcore flag, make for an intense, memorable experience and, in the case of ‘Secrets And Lies’, their second full-length album, a record that will bear up to repeated iterations on any dedicated riff-seeker’s player of choice.


The album starts out solid and slamming with the hardcore-meets-sludge riffs of ‘HexBreaker’, moving effortlessly between snotty aggro and groove. The band is tight and locked-in, executing stop-on-a-dime pauses and lockstep tempo shifts with precision and an infectious energy. ‘Corpse Of Love’ cuts in with groovy, melodic riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on a Cathedral record, chopped in with frenetic, punky barrages of distorted chords. There’s even a breakdown, but a good one that breathes around the edges with well-placed details. ‘Born Against Nihilist’ is all hook-laden mid-tempo riffing and groove, and launches into some very non-Maidenesque galloping along the way, eventually building into an epic jam with some nicely muddy guitar noodling.

‘The Idealist’ carries on with the hardcore/sludge mix, and caps it with catchy vocal hooks, without losing that sense of truculent urgency. ‘Goddamn This City’ takes a more drawn-out approach, opening with low-flame interplay between distorted bass and guitar arpeggios, moving headlong into wall-of-distortion sludge territory with some tasty bass licks and fills underneath. ‘What The Crow Saw’ sees Taint stretching, with a lilting, warbling flute melody ringing out over an almost jaunty backing, and more hooky vocals. The guitars are still muddy and heavy, and the rhythm section sinuous and sludgy – still, this song has a folksy, soaring touch that somehow fits in with the mood of the album.

Taint might well have an interesting future ahead of them if they continue bringing in outside elements that are so perfectly integrated into their format and feel.  The album closer, ‘Mass Appeal Sadness’ is another knock-out blow, a huge, almost spacey sludgefest that broods and pulses with trademark intensity and includes a drawn-out jam with layers of rhythm guitar and fuzzy chords circling over a rhythm backing dominated by a neverending ostinato bassline.

 
Taint is a talented set of musicians with the ability to put something memorable into each song and build their own sound from diverse genre elements, and the potential stretch way beyond generic idioms. They’ve also got just the right amount of non-wussy melody to flesh out the intensity of their sound, and with any luck this album is only a token of even better things ahead. In the meantime, this will do very nicely, thank you very much!
 

Year of Release: 2007

Label: Rise Above