EARTHTONE 9 Hi-Point (rem) (2000/2004) CD

Sheffield in the late nineties was doing something genuinely strange with heavy music, and Earthtone9 were right at the centre of it. While nu-metal was busy chasing American radio, they were pulling the genre somewhere darker and more interesting, threading math-rock tension through the down-tuned riffs and making it feel like a genuine artistic decision rather than a trend.

Hi-Point originally surfaced in 2000 and got the reissue treatment in 2004, by which point the band had already proven they were operating on a different level to their contemporaries. If you were one of the people who actually paid attention to the UK alternative metal underground during that period, this EP is a document of a scene that deserved far more than it got. Essential context for anyone whose gateway into heavy music ran through Kerrang rather than the American charts.

CD EP. UK origin. Released 2004.

Fans of: Miocene, The Blueprint, Stoopi, Blackstorm