HAWERY are a heavy fuzz rock band out of Berlin, Germany poised to make their big splash with their full-length debut "Feast of Vultures". Formed in 2017, the group was initially conceived as a stoner rock band by vocalist Daniel. As the band's sound began to coalesce, the group of musicians from several different genre backgrounds began to expand beyond the stoner rock formula. Related but not quite similar backgrounds of black metal, thrash, punk and hardcore would bleed into the songs. The rest of the 5-piece - Lars and Christoph on guitars, Benjamin on drums and Thomas on bass - were able to forge enough material to enter Hidden Planet Studios Berlin in 2019 to record what would eventually become their first recording as a group. Working alongside Karma Conspiracy Records, the band released their album on October 16^th 2020 in several formats including a physical vinyl variant in either standard black or solid red color pressing alongside digital download and streaming outlets.

Their debut "Feast of Vultures" is filled with classic stoner/fuzz rock and is sure to fill the desires of fans of the genre. The cover art is a bold statement featuring a strikingly ornate rendering of a vulture in flight with a minimalist color pallet of black, white and red. It's a classy choice and one reflected in the tone and dedication of the music. The band pushes genre boundaries as the band reflects by saying "we are crossing border and blurring genres a little bit. Taking what we like about thrash, hardcore or punk." The band are certainly doing that with more modern rock sounding "Shadow" or the unrelenting speed bordering on thrash and hardcore in the title track "Feast of Vultures". The band even gets a little experimental with an instrumental track "Solitude" starting off with a clean, slow opening sounding like the opening of the American mystery/horror dram "Twin Peaks" but slowely layers itself with many voices that seem to be building to a disconcerting, yet strangely harmonic crescendo before reaching an apex and ever so slowly fading away.

The debut of HAWERY is an ambitious debut and competently produced, unfortunately, it did not stir much in me. It's possible I set my expectations high as I am always eager to see how a band who touts many genres inclusions eventually formulates their sound. I got a lot of hardcore and punk influences - you aren't going to hear any guitar solos here - as there are certainly melodic instrumental parts but the focus is more on sludge, riffs, and unrelenting speed and/or depth of tone. However, vocalist Daniel has an excellent control over his instrument able to utilize both perfect distortion without the lyrics being unrecognizable and knowing when he can push it harder and when to hold back. Despite my overall opinion, there is a lot of excellent doom/fuzz rock from the BLACK SABBATH riffage of "Moonstruck" to the more CATHEDRAL styled "City of State" They can do fast and chuggy numbers too, my personal favorite being "Four Walls", featuring an epic breakdown in the middle full of deep, doomy, sludgy goodness. For the futures, I implore the band to push those genre boundaries a bit more, don't be afraid and hold back ideas, I feel like I even could hear some prog in the tornado/hurricane-like guitar effects.