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You Took The Sun When You Left

1. Cripple The Herd
2. Rope
3. The Stone And The Steel
4. By The Factories
5. Guilt
6. A Mouth Full Of Dirt
7. Born In Sand
8. Raised By Lead
9. Hollow-Point Weddings
10. Harrow The Pastures
11. You Took The Sun When You Left

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Sometimes no fun at all can be hugely enjoyable. Take this debut album from Manchester-based trio Leeched; it’s filled with songs titles like Raised By Lead and A Mouth Full Of Dirt, it’s as nihilistic as Eyehategod, as bleak as Neurosis on a rainy Monday morning and is predominately made up of riffs and guttural howling that’s heavier than having a hippo drive a steamroller over your foot.

But the sludgy, ugly, seething, pitch-black hardcore that makes up You Took The Sun When You Left will make anyone who loves savagely loathsome music grin from ear to ear all the way through its 11 tracks.

The way that Leeched delight in punishing the listener, as evidenced by Born In Sand’s climax of feedback-drenched primal screams, is a gruesome joy. A piece of wonderful self-flagellation.

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.