Hookworms

Forget everything you know about Hookworms. OK, well maybe not everything; the urgency and viscera both live and on record that led the Yorkshire-based five-piece to prominence across two blistering full-length LPs, 2013’s Pearl Mystic and 2014 follow-up The Hum, remains. However, as they return with their much-anticipated third record Microshift, the band deliver a seismic shift in their sound, dynamic, songwriting and production – arguably also the first album in which the studio was central to its creation. Radiant, immersive and teeming with light, but still heavy and forceful, the music on Microshift acts as a very deliberate counter to some of the difficult topics the album's lyrics address. Death, disease, heartbreak, body image and even natural disaster are all present here but the overall effect these songs achieve is euphoric catharsis. Hookworms have pulled off a triumph against adversity, a comeback with what they may see as a Microshift, but is in fact a massive advancement.