Scratch One Grub – One
Scratch One Grub – One
Self-Released
Release Date: 27/02/26
Review by Jon Deaux
7.5/10
Six blokes from Aberdare have concluded that what the world is missing is a band that gets inspiration from bands like Strapping Young Lad, or, as a basically similar phrase has it: “We own a drum machine and unresolved feelings.” SCRATCH ONE GRUB – a name that sounds as though it was coined as a Victorian solution to pubic desolation – have released ‘One’ upon an unsuspecting world, and hats off to them; sounds that recall the valleys have never been so like the inside of a tumble dryer with spanners whizzing round in it.
Well, if the following question has ever crossed your mind—what happens when Welsh valleys, Canadian industrial mania, and Bay Area Groove Metal all meet in the mind of six lads who’ve had it up to here—-or, indeed, everything—then read on.
The first track, ‘Swamp Scum,’ starts off like a brick thrown through the stained-glass chapel window — with all the finesse of a Wookiee on a sugar high. Off-kilter chords, Industrial Metal riffs, and a hint of Devin Townsend lurking in the hills somewhere, shaking his head and setting a synthesizer on fire with a dash of his well-used lighter. Aled Trigg trading off between scarring screams and vocals as sympathetic as those of a gentle lover from another age, which, in Modern Metal terms, means emotional depth. “It’s like we’ve learned how to make fire, and we’re all wearing shorts.”
And of course, the Strapping Young Lad worship – well, it’s quite obvious, but it’s just not lazy. There is a degree of ambition at play with the architecture. It’s not lazy by any stretch for guitars by Evan Cook and Alex Lewis. They churn like a freight train with an anger management problem, but at odd moments, they go off in some strange directions, not quite descending into the levels of gratuitous indulgence achieved by Dream Theater. No 14-minute bass solo about elves, for instance – snap changes, atmosphere, and then the blunt force trauma resumes.
‘#1’ is where it clicks most. That grooves. Proper grooves. Is furious and danceable, like the soundtrack to punching someone in a night club and somehow successfully executing the action while in the throes of the attack. Lewis Griffiths and Zac Cross are grooving like the drums need to establish the foundations of a Tesco Extra on a tectonic fault line with the weight of something that isn’t half-bad per se, but over-programmed.
‘Ysbryd’ – meaning “we promise we’re culturally grounded” – seems to indicate a band with some degree of discipline. There is a creepy undertone that pervades the chaos underway, but if they take their time on the atmosphere, that is only done in hindsight on the assumptions regarding the streaming influence. The work on the samples provided by Sean “The Grub Man” Barry is hit-or-miss, with moments where one wonders if one is mid-song browsing horror movie soundtracks and believing the first scary audio snippet available is actually what the song sounds like.
Then there’s ‘GTFP’, which, I assume, stands for ‘Get The Fuck (out) of Pontypridd.’ Three minutes of hate. You would imagine that those Machine Head-esque pomp & bombast-vocal nonsense would propel the band into sounding like disciples, but apparently, scrappiness has won the day. Perhaps the best one’s the ‘Vagabond’ – as soon as they get into the groove, they don’t sound like disciples at all. They sound like six men trying to kick their influences down the mine.
‘Absolution’ plays with Death Metal riffs never once letting go of the reins of its own melody, an extremely difficult feat, much like trying to have an in-depth discussion about philosophy while being flung about like a rag doll with a phone book. By the time Planet Killer explodes off into existence, you have to be hopelessly enthralled by what the group’s trying to contribute to industrial groovy extremism in the Welsh-speaking world, or have immediately retreated into Coldplay Land and started brewing yourself some nice cups of tea.
When it comes to production, “One” is rich and thick without ever feeling overproduced. It sounds like actual humans in actual rooms playing actual instruments with actual purpose – an incredibly artisanal concept in 2026. There is no sterile chase of djent sheens or over-reliance on computer algorithms; just weight, air, and impact.
Are SCRATCH ONE GRUB redefining heavy music? By no stretch of the imagination. Are they pretending to? Don’t even get them started. They have made a perfectly acceptable clubbing ram and are utilizing it with gusto to bash away at a scene overrun with breaks designed to sound angry and quantized fury. The difference between ‘One’ and mediocre is the spite. The hunger. The knowledge that this is no longer content. It is catharsis.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Swamp Scum
02. Vagabond
03. GTFP
04. Absolution
05. Bad Habit
06. #1
07. Ysbryd
08. Planet Killer
LINKS:
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