EP Review: Eat Your Own Head – The Trawler (Drongo Records)

Norwich alt/noise-rock band Eat Your Own Head are pleased to announce the release of their upcoming new EP, The Trawler, set for release on 31st May 2024 via Drongo Records.

Eat Your Own Head count themselves as one of the bands spearheading a new wave of heavy music, redefining the UK rock scene. Known for their unpredictable twists and turns, the band veer from floor stomping riffs to tender moments of dark tranquillity. Centred around an organic approach to creating their music, their lyrics tap into the struggles of navigating modern life in 2024.

Drawn together by a collective yearning to play extremely loud music (as all the best heavy bands are) the band present an enticing blend of rich, heavy alt-rock that sidesteps some of the genres more obvious pitfalls and replaces them instead with muscular vocals, hooks, and a technical and unpredictable musicality that evokes comparisons to early Marmozets, as well as underground heroes Blacklisters, Blakfish, and &U&I.

Taking inspiration from everything from Nirvana to Black Midi, the band formed in 2019 and were straight out of the blocks with the Hank EP in 2020 and released their debut album Neck-Deep In The Blyth in 2022. This new release, The Trawler, was laid down in sessions during Nov/Dec 2023. It is produced by David Vickers, mixed by Mikey Shaw, and mastered by Katie Tavini, the EP was recorded at Bomb Store Studio, nestled in the atomic bomb store and servicing facility on Thetford Heath.

The quartet have also built a strong live reputation and have been on to play all over the UK including support slots with more established acts such as The Physics House Band, St. Pierre Snake Invasion, Sugar Horse, The Guru Guru, Lunch Money Life, My Octopus Mind and many more.

Eat Your Own Head is Ash Woolnough, Jordan Woolnough, Tom McGeady and Ben Mollett.

The Trawler brings us 4 new tracks to get stuck into, the first of which has been out for a little while as the lead single. That one is Chest Pains and it’s a banger. Loose and raw, bringing power and attitude to the forefront, it shows the darker and heavier side of Eat Your Own Head as they smash out loose drums, crunchy riffs and a mix of vocals with harsh shouts and deeper cleans. The bass is prominent throughout and the guitars are quirky and cool. It’s a mover of a track, one to let loose and throw yourself around a bit too other than in the nice slow building instrumental section where you can get a sway on. Just for a bit though as it soon descends into a chaotically cool musical interlude full of energy and enthusiasm.

Down River mixes the style up a bit, but just a bit. The start still offers that alt-rock style with a nice and raw sounding drum blasts mixed with energetic riffs packing plenty of groove. The vocals are clean, but with attitude and a bit of a local twang to the accent. It adds to the realness. The chorus drops and goes full melancholy with gentle guitars and soothing vocals. That acts as a very neat contrast to the bassy riffing on either side of the choruses. Not a band to sit still, the track soon switches up in quite epic style with a bit of a grooving instrumental section that patiently builds into a mammoth ending. Harsh vocals, a very full and atmospheric feel as the drums rain down, the bass shakes your bones and the lead guitars scream. It’s a bit special.

The penultimate track on The Trawler is Hardwired and while it is quite short, just falling short of 3 minutes, it packs a lot into it’s smaller run time. A combination of a lot of what came before, but condensed, the band deliver attitude and feeling in equal amounts with verses that will get your head banging and your body moving before it drops off for a more melodic chorus. Vocals are strong, whether clean or harsh or anywhere in between, they sound authentic and suit the style of the music perfectly.

The Trawler closes out on the title track, kind of, with Trawler. Quirky and odd in it’s start with timing that pulls you in different directions. The drums, guitars and vocals all seem to be operating at their own timing and patterns but it’s interesting and pulls it all back together every now and then, just at the right time, before my mind can’t take the lack of structure anymore. A very groovy track with a nice bass line and some really intriguing drum ideas, Trawler is certainly filled with energy and attitude, and I especially like the heavier and meatier closing passage of the track with it’s huge background shouts, scratchy riffs and intense drum blasts while struggling, just a touch, as my go to place is structure. It’s a cool track though and closes out the EP in some style.

Eat Your Own Head have delivered a very cool, quirky and energetic EP here in Trawler. Clearly a band that have a ton of creativity and they pack quite a lot of ideas, into each track, but rather than sound messy, it somehow works. Chaos, but organised chaos, Eat Your Own Head give you the opportunity to let loose, throw yourself around, headbang, dance and sway here. Each song comes with a lot of transitions, lots of changes in style as each one progresses and that makes it for a very exciting listen that captures and holds your attention throughout. The Trawler is a really impressive release from a talented band where surely the world is their oyster.

Eat Your Own Head have a few dates lined up currently this year where you can go and check them out. Grab your tickets from this link.

July 4th – New Cross Inn, London
July 19th – Coda, Colchester
July 20th – Wharf Chambers, Leeds
August 23rd – Maui Waui Festival, Norfolk

And you can grab your copy of The Trawler from Drongo Records on Bandcamp, here.

Eat Your Own Head Links

Website – Bandcamp – Instagram – Facebook – X – YouTube – Spotify – Apple Music