Like with any genre tag, post punk gets chucked around on a lot of artists until the original definition gets lost in a confusing blur. Upon listening to Artefact’s recent released debut LP ‘Votive Offering’ however, you get reminded at what the term originally meant when it was first sprung up in the late 70s and early 80s.

For some background info, Artefact rose from the ashes of several now defunct DIY punk/emo bands in 2014, including Plaids, Mars to Stay and Twisted. I first stumbled upon them in April 2015, when they supported fellow Cardiff band Chain of Flowers in Manchester along with Sievehead, Gut Model and Commonplace. Their live set was unnerving, gloomy and uncomprisingly raw in it’s delivery. All this was marvellously captured on their original seven track demo, which suffice to say has continued to be the glorious case for their album.

From the very moment ‘Siren’ opens the record, you feel transported into a gothic dark dimension. The energy is calculatingly natural and precise as both guitar, drums and bass fight it out in an eerie yet foreboding tone, with lead vocalist Hannah Saunders leading the way, bringing up images of a hooded wraith encouraging you to delve into the dark depths that tracks like ‘The Morrigan’, ‘Boudicca’ and ‘Witching Hour’ bring. Am I being melodramatic about the impact this record has on me? Perhaps, but the forefathers of this particular brand of post punk, including Siouxsie Sioux, Joy Division and Bauhaus, relished in such theatrics. Bearing that in my mind, it is in this writer’s opinion, that Artefact have accomplished such “replication” from a natural place, where so many other bands fail.