REVIEW: YEAR OF THE FLOOD 'REDEFINE THE NATURAL ORDER' (WITCH HUNTER)

As unimaginative a comparison as this is, it's also unavoidable – just as Carcass loom large in any mention of Impaled, you can't separate Nottingham's literary inspired post-metal/crust unit Year of the Flood from sadly defunct literary inspired post-metal/crust unit Fall of Efrafa. Both bands haven't considered for a second how narrow their remit might appear to be, in the former's case the works of celebrated allegorical science-fiction author Margaret Atwood, and in the latter proto-furry parable 'Watership Down' – it's not a theme, or a gimmick, it's just a decoder ring for the band's similar messages of man-made destruction, albeit ecological/ethical in the case of the former, and political/ideological in the case of the latter.

The follow-up to last year's incredible 'A Utopian View', second EP 'Redefine the Natural Order' (which can be downloaded for free or purchased for an agreeable £4) is already more sprawling and mature, with the earlier disc's driving single-mindedness that kept it very much rooted in hardcore's gritted teeth, emerging from a damp fog of Cult of Luna/Isis-brand swirling vistas – albeit it vistas powered by that inescapable, metronomic d-beat – to climax in the desperate pleading with the rolling stormclouds of closing track 'Psycodrama'.

There's no shortage of bands dipping their toes in these waters, or approaching them from a more black metal end with some frosty riffs but otherwise similar outcome – in fact it's one of those stock musical templates which provokes instant foaming over-indulgence by critics and fans alike who have a thousand words for 'awesome' and three words for 'mediocre', but rarely do you get a sense of some cohesive vision with a release as a definite part in a finite story. And that's where the Fall of Efrafa comparison rises up on its hind legs, to sniff the air once more, because they had it too.