“You’re dumb as fuck. You fucking suck and now I hope you fuckin’ dieeeeeee!”

Not my words but those of Chris Kosnick of The Atomic Bitchwax on the beast of a track “Shocker”.

I myself share this sentiment and put it out to anyone that does not immediately fall in lust with this album. “Force Field” is simultaneously a shot of adrenaline in the arm and a shot of the blue stuff in the nether regions. Fist pumping, chasm jumping, chest bumping, kick ass rock and roll.

Comparison will always be made with Monster Magnet due to Kosnick and drummer Bob Pantella’s day job. However, where Wyndorf and crew like to inject prog and psyche into their grooves Bitchwax, rounded out by Finn Ryan on guitar and vocals just get down to business in a flurry of dust and V8 fumes.

“Hippie Speedball” tears out of the pits like a mixture of Fu Manchu and early Foo’s but with 100% TAB attitude. “Earthshaker (Which doobie you be?) “Tits and Bones” and “Liv a Little” are shit kicking groovers with the latter adding a little Sweet meets Manson to the drums. “Alaskan Thunder Fuck” is exactly that! A rabid stomp that screams for a whiskey soaked cowboy filled circle pit.

By the time the aforementioned “Shocker” hits my shell the shit eating grin on my face is threatening to bust my chops. It’s a raging killer of a track. One on which the rest of the album can gladly pivot around. Think “Screamager” by Therapy? Or “Love Removal Machine” by The Cult. This was a blast straight to the pleasure centres.

“Crazy” that follows it could have been a damp squib after but it’s a sing along feast of its own.

“Fried, Dyed and Layin’ To the Side” is an instrumental that really showcases what the trio can do. As musicians they can bring the funk and stomp and then wig out with the best of the psychonauts.

This album is infectious! It infiltrates via the ear canals and then spreads rapidly until this 44 year old right on leftie is shouting out of my car window that I have “13, 14, 15 atomic bitches!” (Shell of a Man).

This is the best album I have heard this year by a country mile.

It’s an intergalactic stag do in a dodge charger powered by plutonium. Fuck yeah I like it!

(10/10 Matt Mason)

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