Drummer Tom Marsh and guitarist/singer Matt Reynolds have one of the most intriguing story arcs in modern British alternative music. First coming to prominence as members of chaotic mathcore collective Baby Godzilla (renamed Heck after the threat of legal action from the makers of Godzilla) they were seen as the UK’s answer to The Dillinger Escape Plan, more interested in venue-obliterating high octane than any real listenability.

Latest wheeze Haggard Cat started as a sort of stripped-back side-project. But with Heck semi-shelved, coming out only as a special attraction for events like this summer’s ArcTanGent, the Cat has begun to roar properly.

The Pain That Orbits Life is their latest invigorating evolution. Having streamlined a fuzzed-up sound and tightened their songwriting already across 2018 debut Challenger and 2020’s Common Sense Holiday, six years away has upped the maturity without dimming the fire.

Rather than burning uncontrollably, the old heat and energy is channelled into pulsating opener I Hate It Here, the spectacularly tense Soar and head-spinning single Halcyon. They find Haggard Cat pinballing between smouldering angst, angular awkwardness and free flowing catharsis.

Like similarly hard-edged Brit post-hardcore forefathers Mclusky, Million Dead and The St Pierre Snake Invasion, there’s an unaffected earthiness that makes songs as heavy as Afterlove weirdly poppy. And in near-eight-minute epic Apnoea they find space to smuggle sheets of strange beauty into a towering pile of otherwise claustrophobically stacked layers.

Watch on YouTube

Brilliantly, where the front end of The Pain That Orbits Life is loaded with the sort of pained self-analysis that title would suggest, its second half ricochets off with joyously unhinged momentum. Nails feels custom-built for mass sing-alongs in festival fields. Suppressor dabbles in crushing doom and flighty prog before unleashing an unadulterated stomp. Landscapes is the sort of building atmospheric masterclass that smaller minds would have thought beyond the reach of a two-piece band.

Even as Warpath crashes into mammoth closer Zion, there are still surprises to be sprung. Filling almost 11 minutes, that last track could’ve been a leaden dirge or an uncontrolled steam-release. Instead, it’s a wildly energetic emotional rollercoaster, with almost folky lightness of touch until a heart-ripping final third that delivers the emotional crescendo this record deserves.

The Cat’s got claws – and a ton more tricks to boot…

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Heck, The St Pierre Snake Invasion, Kvelertak

The Pain That Orbits Life is out now Church Road.