58. Pist – “Hailz”

More home-grown metal, this time from just down the road in Bury. Now I need to be honest and say that this album took me completely by surprise. I know the band to nod at as they seem to be at all the same gigs that I go to and I have seen them in various support slots. Whilst I have always enjoyed them live, they have never risen out of the ‘mindless fun’ category. This album though is staggeringly good and far more emotionally nuanced than I expected. There is different shades and textures at play here and it actually comes across as really clever and well thought through effort. I was astounded by its depth and its range. It’s still full of riffs but it is much more refined and song based than I had expected.