Spearside – “Hatchet Man”

Spearside’s “Hatchet Man” EP is wonderful and grabbed my attention from the first second. Oisín’s vocals have a raw, unfiltered edge that manages to sound just as fed-up as it does fired-up, giving each track a real bite. “Planning Our Escape” swerves into something far more woozy and melodic, its edges fuzzed out in just the right way, a perfect contrast without feeling like a mood-killer.

Then there’s “All The Same”, which feels like it stumbled out of a warped school disco where everyone’s crying in eyeliner. Spearside keep things off-balance in a good way, and by the time they crash into their cover of “Are Friends Electric?”, it’s less homage and more a total deconstruction, from ghostly jangle to a shoegaze meltdown that works way better than it should.

The artwork, with its vintage parade scene and bold, stamped-in-place band name, fits this thing’s tone perfectly, rooted in history but absolutely ready to rip through it. Follow Spearside online to keep up with everything they’re dropping in the rest of 2025.