If any musical genre was a contender to burn itself out on its own frenetic energy, then it was surely hardcore punk. Those blitzkrieg riffs and blastbeats put the scene on a fast track oblivion, but here we are 45 years later, with each successive generation refining things and building upon what came before. London-based Higher Walls are a prime example of a band working on solid foundations, whilst taking their music into new realms of brutality and heaviness. If it is true that hard times create hard music then their latest EP, Cloak & Dagger, holds a mirror to the world and offers a frightening glimpse of the future.
Higher Walls aren’t the kind of band who f*ck around, and immediately wheel in the heavy artillery for opening track ‘History’s Eyes’. With wrecking ball swing, the band throw their (considerable) weight around like a heavyweight boxer and stomp like a 900lb gorilla. Fans of Terror, Hatebreed and Nails will find a spiritual home here, while more hardy folk from the metal community will find much to admire also. Yet, it sounds as if the band’s roots reach deep; I can detect a definite Discharge/Varukers influence, along with a touch of kängpunk (KSMB), yet these influences are merely a springboard to something new. Of course, we’re all the sum of the art we consume and it can’t help but shape us (often subliminally) but it’s to their credit that Higher Walls don’t really sound like anybody but themselves.
With none of these six tracks breaking the three-minute mark (and two sub two-minute songs), Higher Walls don’t hang about. There’s something so very concise about tracks such as ‘A Harrowed Wisdom’ and it is from this brevity that the band derive much of their power; they don’t use two notes when one will suffice and their succinctness makes them the musical equivalent of a violent street fight. They cause the maximum damage in the shortest time frame, leaving the listener battered and bruised and wondering what hit them. From the caustic opener to cataclysmic closer ‘So Much, For So Long, For So Little’, Higher Walls serve up an abject lesson in violence, and one that offers little in the way of mercy, but you knew that on the way in.
With bands such as Higher Walls on the scene, hardcore’s future is looking as assured as its past.
- Cloak & Dagger is self-released on 25th April 2025 (available here).
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Track List:
- History’s Eyes
- Cloak & Dagger
- Thorns
- A Harrowed Wisdom
- Collateral Damage
- So Much, For So Long, For So Little
