Mastiff – For All the Dead Dreams (EP)
Release Date: 24th October 2025
Label: Church Road Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Hardcore infused sludgey doom
FFO: Nails, Harms Way, Gatecreeper.
Review By: Paul Cairney
After 4 full-length albums, including 2024’s excellent ‘Deprecipice’, Hull natives Mastiff have returned with a new EP on a new record label, Church Road Records.
This is a good move – the label is renowned for heavy bands, and by Satan’s hairy bollocks does For All the Dead Dreams bring the heavy. Mastiff cram their own delightful brand of nihilistic misery in to 17 minutes, thoroughly attempting to disembowel you with disgusting intensity. The riffs pummel, the vocals (from Jim Hodge) are guttural in the extreme and the EP spits in your face, knowing that you will accept it and press play again…and again….and again.
If you have not discovered Mastiff – this is your gateway. They deliver the finest hardcore infused sludge you can imagine. Tracks like the opener, ‘Soliloquy’, leave you with bruises from the intense riffs and overall emotion of the track. ‘A Story behind Every Light’ sees the band in a more personal vein, riffs are slower, but maintain the heavy, as the personal lyrics touching on grief threaten to overwhelm.
You may have heard of Mastiff, you may have seen them live – they are prodigious tourers. But if you have not, For All the Dead Dreams is an EP that will demand you seek out their back catalogue.
(4.5 / 5)
