Hey Clown
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Hey Clown

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2012 | SELF

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada | SELF
Established on Jan, 2012
Band Rock Metal

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

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"EP REVIEW"

Apparently it’s punk week on Cut From Steel. After loving the new stuff from TV FREAKS the other day, I am really glad to keep the good Hamilton punk train rolling with this new EP from another Hamilton punk band – Hey Clown.

As with most punk 7” releases, it is short. There are three tracks on this baby and they are intense. This EP is damn good and I’ve been listening to these three tracks on repeat for about 3 days now.

Check it out. You’ll like it.

It is amazing to see bands like Hey Clown, and TV FREAKS, play this type of old school intense punk music today in 2014. The music sounds fantastic and it such a welcome addition to Hamilton’s ( and beyond) musical landscape. - Cut From Steel


"Hey Clown - Elevator Rock"

Hey Clown – Elevator Rock

9/10

If you looked at the title of this band and their EP, what would you expect to hear when you pressed play?

The opening riff to this EP is a compressed decoy of the actual lead-in riff, and I fleetingly wonder if this really is elevator music…and then the compression drops! The thick, sludgy wall of Hey Clown is revealed in all its drop-tuned glory. Take me to the first verse and a smile creeps across my face at the gear change in riff choice and the strangled screams of a truly uncompromising vocalist.

This five-piece from Dunnville, Ontario are very hard to pigeonhole, but very easy to get down to. The gritty, grinding, relentless riffs throughout this EP have got the bottom end intact, and immediately reel in any listener who revelled in the down-tuning of the 90s. The vocals are impassioned and void of doubt, and would clear an entire arena at a Taylor Swift concert! Warm, crisp production of this EP allows the bass and drums to shine and work their magic at making heads move.

This entire EP is so solid and the songs are so homogenous with each other, it seems kind of redundant to separate individual songs for commentary. Closing track “Dieppe,” however, narrowly became my favourite after a few listens. The work going on behind the drum set keeps this frenetic masterpiece from coming off the rails. The breakdown in the middle of the song includes a very classy nod to Tool’s finer moments, and the gorgeous wash of the ride cymbal before the onslaught of the outro is utterly delicious.

The engineering of Elevator Rock is attributed to Nick Ginn, and the mastering to Dan Weston. Both gents have allowed the sonic spectrum of the band to be extremely well represented. Stephanie Bell’s artwork for the cover is a stark, brooding, symbolic image (an all-seeing eye in the centre of a hand’s palm) that is very cool, and its use on t-shirts and vinyl covers alike means that the band have some very attractive merchandise at their Bandcamp store (and on tour too.) While this EP was released digitally on the 28th of April, the launch tour is ongoing. If I lived in Toronto, Ontario there is nowhere else I would be than at the front of the stage at Nocturne so I could cop it in the face, nice and sweet!

Hey Clown class themselves as a hard rock band, and I think this is an accurate definition for them. However there are respectful salutes to hardcore, progressive rock, power violence and even nu-metal seeping into their playing too. In the sixteen minutes or so of this recording, that aspect of the mind that seeks to compare hears Brutus, Health Legend, Deftones, Tool, Forstora, and Emmure. The point is that if you like your hard rock placed firmly in the centre of your forehead, then look no further; as they said in the 90s, “This is the shit!” - Bucket List Music Reviews


Discography

'Elevator Rock' EP 2015
1. Elevator Rock
2. Flip Flop
3. Tacklebox
4. The Giant
5. Easily
6. Dieppe


S/T EP  2014
1. Side Arm
2. Gardiner
3. Yellowjacket


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Bio

Conceived in the small town of Dunnville, Ontario - Hey Clown is a relentless 5 piece assault on the senses forged by their unique blend of hard rock, metal and hardcore.  You like intense? You like heavy? You like catchy? You like Hey Clown.

Band Members