Back again with another playlist this time by English Blackened Noise butchers Mastiff. The guys show that they can more than slaughter, see tracks by Malevolence, Black Flag, Zao or The Body, but also caress our earlopes with songs by Broken Social Scene, Manic Street Preachers or Saves the Day!

Jim
Grief Ritual - “Immurement”: One of my favourite releases of this year

Malevolence - “Life Sentence”: Playing with malev back when they first started and seeing where they are now is just class

Kublai Kahn - “The Hammer”: Nothing to see here other than one of the heaviest songs going

Knoll - “Guild of BlottedLucre”: Flat out from start to finish

Armed for Apocalypse - “Flesh and Blood”: We’re lucky to call these boys mates,and this album is unbelievably good

Taylor Swift - “Cruel Summer”: She can do no wrong

Phil
The Style Council - “My Ever Changing Moods”: This track superbly depicts what it is to be human.

The Ordinary Boys - “Over the Counter Culture”: I love this track, it’s massive and not gimmicky like some of the others they released.

Black Flag - “Nervous Breakdown”: Ace track, an early version of Black Flag being stripped back and catchy as hell.

Drug Church - “Grubby”: An incredibly complete track for its meagre running time.

Saves The Day - “Third Engine”: The riff at the beginning is first class and then the sing along parts are anthemic. 

The Smiths - “Cemetery Gates”: - My favourite Smiths track, it’s about spending time in a cemetery and reading poetry. How romantic.

Jam
Manic Street Preachers - “Faster”: As vicious and acerbic now as the day I first heard it, and single-handedly informed my predilection towards bile-filled heavy music.

Carpenter Brut - “Leather Terror”: Hard metallic synthwave with Ben Koller on the drums. Nothing got my blood pumping this year harder than this song. 

Zao - “Croatoan”: A masterclass in creeping dread, pinned down in its second half by one of the greatest Zao riffs of all time. 

Wiegedood - “FN SCAR 16”: The most genuinely threatening Black Metal song I’ve heard in years. The hypnotic, swirling and maniacally repeating main riff makes me feel sick in the best possible way.

Burning Love - “Karla”: Pitch-black rock’n’roll hardcore of the highest order, Cursed will always be my favourite Chris Colohan band but the sheer fist-pumping power of Burning Love cannot be denied. 

Nine Inch Nails - “The Great Destroyer”: Year Zero is one of so many underrated later NIN albums, and this song is a perfect example why. Saw them play this at the Royal Albert Hall and the big drop into the massive electronic outro almost crumbled the walls of the building.

Mike
The Clash - “Safe European Home”: Massive sounding song and very well written.

The Jam - “Saturdays Kids”: One of my favourite bands from my childhood. Clever social commentary with the lyrics. 

Killing Joke - “Into the Unknown”: An epic song, which doesn’t let up.

The Damned - “Love Song”: Fast as fuck punk rock at it’s best!

Nasum - “Particles”: Absolute face ripping track! And what a way to open an album!

Radiohead - “Let Down”: A very melancholy song that builds. Listen to it if you want to be truly pissed off.

Dan
Liars - “Broken Witch”: A wonderfully disjointed ritual.

Broken Social Scene - “KC Accidental”: An evolving stop/start gem with a beautiful ending.

The Body - “Nothing Stirs”: One of the bleakest yet most beautiful tracks in The Body’s catalogue.

Aphex Twin - “To Cure A Weakling Child”: No playlist is complete without some Aphex Twin and this track is a banger!

Nothing - “B&E”: Modern shoegaze perfection.

Helmet - “Like I Care”: Bogdan and Stanier are my favourite rhythm section.