{"id":104529,"date":"2025-02-07T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T00:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=104529"},"modified":"2025-02-19T13:09:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T13:09:57","slug":"ep-review-sidewinder-march-of-the-eternal-heretic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/ep-review-sidewinder-march-of-the-eternal-heretic\/","title":{"rendered":"SIDEWINDER – March Of The Eternal Heretic EP (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SIDEWINDER
March Of The Eternal Heretic EP<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSelf-released (2025)<\/span>
Rating: 6.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s good to see this Leeds, England-based bunch of aggressors back with a new EP. If you\u2019re unfamiliar with these guys then I suggest you start at the beginning with the 2020 demo Ashes Of Reality<\/em> followed by the 2023 debut full-length album War Tapes Vol. 1<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sidewinder are very much a rough n\u2019 ready bunch that hit hard with a flurry of short, sharp punches before leaving the scene of the crime. This new EP only runs for 16 minutes but there are enough bruising assaults here to last a long time after. Strongly embedded in the realms of blackened hardcore, crust and thrash, Sidewinder is arguably one of the most confrontational bands on the UK scene and the four tirades on offer here are full of grit and muscularity.<\/p>\n

Opener \u2018Two Zero One\u2019 feels like an attack by several unruly bouncers at a nightclub. Charging riffs, shouted rants and a barrage of drums and bass sends you reeling because it\u2019s such an aggressive, in-your-face experience, a smash n\u2019 grab action if you will.<\/p>\n

The title track is another fierce combination of punches; quintessential contemporary hard core with that belligerent thrash butchery. Maybe not quite as old school as I\u2019d want but why should Sidewinder care about my feelings when their only interest is to charge headlong into the brawl.<\/p>\n

Okay, so at times March Of The Eternal Heretic<\/em> is a tad one dimensional but then again it isn\u2019t an EP that\u2019s intention is to tickle your fancy. Even so, within its muscular framework you will find a destructive mix of thrash, death, punk, crust and crossover, the result being a hefty track such as \u2018From Beneath They Shall Rise\u2019 with its juggernaut riffs and relentless hammering. Closer \u2018Ashes Of Eternity\u2019 does provide some steadier grooves but you\u2019re always wary of being hit by the bombardment of the vocals.<\/p>\n

A few times through this belligerent display I was thankful the duration was so short. After all, not everyone likes to be beaten up for 16 minutes.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SIDEWINDERMarch Of The Eternal Heretic EP Self-released (2025)Rating: 6.5\/10 It\u2019s good to see this Leeds, England-based bunch of aggressors back with a new EP. If you\u2019re unfamiliar with these guys then I suggest you start at the beginning with the 2020 demo Ashes Of Reality followed by the 2023 debut full-length album War Tapes Vol. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5869],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-sidewinder-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104533,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104529\/revisions\/104533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}