Some debuts announce themselves with confidence; others detonate like a warning shot. Greed Between the Lines, the first EP from Welsh outfit Teethin, does the latter. Formed in late 2024 and led by Greek-Welsh artist James Minas, the band fuses punk, electronic chaos, and hip-hop grit into a sound that is as cathartic as it is cohesive. The result is an unflinching reflection of a world in turmoil, one that thrives on confrontation rather than comfort.
From the start, Teethin demand attention. Opener “Throwin Shapes” begins with twitchy unease before detonating into tribal percussion and Minas’s venomous bark. The song rails against scapegoating and complacency, Minas spitting “say it to my fucking face then” with confrontational urgency. “Lara Scoffed” follows as a bombastic clash of hardcore thrash and warped hip-hop, tearing into cultural stagnation and nepotism in the music industry. Both tracks are raw, exhilarating blasts that leave no room for detachment.
The middle stretch expands the band’s scope. “Dud” marries heavy bass with drum-and-bass ferocity, mocking faux working-class posturing in music while pointing to real-life precarity. Then comes “My Generation,” the EP’s centrepiece: a dystopian reimagining of the Stones’ classic. Initially restrained, it builds into a synth-laced storm that captures both melancholy and rage. Minas’s repeated refrain, pleading for confrontation beyond the screen, feels like the EP’s thesis, a howl against digital inertia and societal apathy.
Closing track “Broke the Light” turns the lens inward. Minas reflects on giving someone else power over his happiness, the track swinging between hushed melancholy and volcanic release. It’s the most personal moment here, but it fits the EP’s larger pattern: channelling frustration and vulnerability into eruptions of noise and emotion. The extremes are shattering, proof that Teethin’s chaos isn’t aimless but meticulously shaped.
Greed Between the Lines is an astonishing debut: scathing, innovative, and deeply human. Imagine The Prodigy colliding with Deftones and Burial, and you’re close, but Teethin’s energy is uniquely their own. In a musical landscape often content to recycle, they sound like a warning siren and a lifeline at once. This is music that won’t let you look away, and live, it’s bound to be incendiary.
