19th October 2019

Review: “Way Of The Geeza” by Pintglass

Creating a whole new sub-genre in Geezercore, Pintglass, who comprise Ben Mason otherwise known as the vocalist for Bound In Fear and Sunfall as well as the drummer in Carbine and Barney Warner otherwise known as the frontman of aggregated Beatdown Hardcore crew Replacer are joined by a group of friends for a Stella Artois sponsored debut in “Way Of The Geezza”. Hailing from Guilford in leafy Surrey the pair have a wealth of experience and given then title has tongue in cheek humour at its heart. This is one that premiered on the Slam World Wide YouTube channel a week before it’s release to streaming services.

The sounds of someone being lifted up of the floor for the return to a bare knuckle back alley fight “7AM Start” sees Mason deliver some seriously juicy Deathcore heavyweight vocals with some Slam growls during a punishingly heavy Beatdown Hardcore with a sense of cockney gangland culture. It’s the Metal equivalent of “Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels” and closes on a power slide into the sound of a breaking bottle over someone’s head into “High Vis Hate”. Beatdown Hardcore riffs with Deathcore tones and squeals are nothing short of savagely on point while the Mason and Warner go toe to toe vocally as the late employee and foreman with rap screams, Deathcore growls and hilarious banter. The first of the guests appear on “GTHC” with Street Soldier bringing the Northern Hate down south and throwing in the gang chants. Tempo shifting between Hardcore and Downtempo pacings gives plenty of room for the vocals to breathe while Scotty Hall and Laurie Caudwell take their turn during some huge bass drops. It’s as brutal is it is hilariously funny. “Head Of The Firm” gets Revelations on board for some Grime infused vocal and some massive hard hitting breakdowns. Lyrics about working on the site for 12 hours a day, working hard and drinking harder before some seriously brutal Slam vocals are on point. This deserves to be way more than a side project!

MTXS join up for “Ruthless 2 Toothless” and adds some samples into a heady mix of freshly poured pints with “We’ll rap this scaffolding around your head you p****” being a classic example of the bar room brawl starting vocals littering the album. Reworking The Proclaimers single “I’m Gonna Be” that everyone knows the words to into “I would down 500 hundred Stella’s and I would down 500 more just to be the man who downs 1000 Stella’s and falls down at your door” in a drunken stupor to intro “Cafe Brawler” is hilariously funny and Idle Hands lend a hand to a track that hits as hard as Mike Tyson while declaring a love of black pudding. The menacing overtones of “Get In The Skip You Prick” are adrenalized by some seriously impressive break downs as the Geezza mentality is taken a step further with sirens ablaze and threats to knock your teeth out. Mason’s a tiger let out from its cage and after blood. “Plonker Stomper” is a declaration. “Walking through the site by day, Stella in the hand by night, Geeza’s dedicated”. The building trade and it’s shoddy workmanship reputation gets another body slam in fine form. Taking all the sub-genres you want and poking fun in the form of a cheap sausage from the greasy spoon at the Geeza lifestyle, there are times when you don’t know whether you want to laugh or bang your head. In a good way. Just remember it’s two sugars or a Stella [8/10]