Album Review: Eye Licker – Once More Into The Rabbit Hole

Manchester, UK’s hardcore stalwarts Eye Licker formed in 2007, with an original mission statement of just being overly noisy and unnecessarily loud and wanting to have a lot of fun and play anywhere that would have them. The band never had any long term plans but as members came and went they gradually started writing more songs, playing shows further afield and recording and releasing material, still without any long term plans. Now it’s eleven years, six releases, three drummers and two bassists later and Eye Licker have signed to Back From The Dead Records. The band’s recent full length, Once More Into The Rabbit Hole, will be released via the label on CD and digital formats on June 10th.

Once More Into The Rabbit Hole opens with a brief and impressive heavyweight instrumental, Intro Schmintro, that has the hallmarks of Doyle, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies, but what follows is a relentless breakneck fusion of thrash punk and hardcore. What becomes apparent early into the album is that Eye Licker don’t take them too seriously as you are brutalised by tracks like The Safe Word Is ‘Harder’, In Sanity and Dumbstruck. Once More Into The Rabbit Hole is an album that fulfils Eye Licker‘s original mission statement as it’s loud, noisy, fun and an intense blast that indicates that the UK’s hardcore scene is in good shape

The eight tracks that make up Once More Into The Rabbit Hole flash past in an intense blur and their latest full length is done and dusted in around fifteen minutes. The album is punctuated by two instrumentals that bring the pace down very slightly but other than that this is full tilt hardcore punk, and it’s an album I’d recommend to anyone that has a love of the extreme end of punk. As a footnote I recently caught Eye Licker live and they currently hold the title for being the loudest band I’ve seen this year, and if you think Once More Into The Rabbit Hole is loud and intense just wait until you’ve caught them live.

Once More Into The Rabbit Hole can be pre-ordered here

Eye Licker‘s website can be found here here