TRACK REVIEW: Cheap Lunch – Leap Chunk

Impassioned. Intriguing. Impeccable. Newcastle-based Cheap Lunch’s second EP Leap Chunk is a three-track blend of psych and death metal, punk anger, existential dread and gloom. An eclectic fusion between Iggy Pop, The Hives and Pantera, the EP is endowed with fury.

The dynamic two-part single Ah Satan/Dry confronts external societal pressures. Ah Satan, a Tarantino film-esque personification of anger, smoothly transitions to Dry’s melancholically serene musing on others’ success. Elsewhere, Shamanic Dose is a powerfully prophetic 11-minute journey, opening with Radiohead-inspired filmic calm, eventually shifting into frantic drums and guitar, in a skilful commentary on the impact of ritual on mental health. Closing track, Doomserf, plays with heavy drumbeats and guitars, seamlessly switching between both ends of the vocal spectrum, artfully culminating in guitar audio decay.