If you are looking for a cross-section of metallic sounds from Portugal, Raging Plant seem to be a good stop off point for discovering what is about on the scene. Junkbreed are presenting their debut album here and contain members of bands such as Switchtense, Primal Attack and Wells Valley. They are said to take influence from a wide variety of acts ranging from At The Drive In to Sonic Youth. I am definitely not a ‘cool kid’ in any sense or scope but then again it was nothing particularly recent or trendy that listening to Junkbreed had me thinking of whilst giving this album a spin. In fact, this is to me ears essentially noise rock which is rooted sound-wise back as far as the late 80’s and beyond that I am hearing here.

Squealing angular riffs greet us along with rolling drums and plenty of hard and fast melody as the album rocks into motion on opener ‘Wild Risk.’ The vocalist has a gritty, snotty venom with plenty of attitude about him and the songs are loose and fast with a frantic urgency about them. Short and compact songs fly by in a blur, with them the vocal antagonism has a bit of a warble about it and I simply cannot listen to this without drawing comparisons to Ian MacKaye with songs such as ‘Out There’ taking me back to Fugazi somewhere around their Red Medicine era. Naturally this is not something I have a problem with and Junkbreed have engaged, got my head banging and feet stomping along to their jaunty rhythmic thrusting and vocal posturing.

This is undoubtably an extreme listening experience and the band are really proficient at keeping the adrenaline flowing through the listener’s veins, the power and groove never lets up for a moment and it’s a rollocking listen from start to finish. Lovers of bands from Therapy through to Helmet with a touch of Unsane will be throwing shapes and jumping off the furniture to songs like ‘Right Here And Now’ an immediate 2 and a half minute wrecking ball of discord and punky, post hardcore swagger. ‘Karma Is Coming’ has some doomy laden licks and a feel that comeuppance is going to be delivered, which it is with vitriolic fury and zeal. ‘Morphine On Command’ sounds like a mix of Minor Threat with some postpunk Killing Joke guitar work rattling away on it and there are moments on ‘My Own Escape’ that romp away like Big Black on steroids.

Bar a hidden track this is served up in a fast and precise fashion that is going to invigorate anyone who encounters it. Perhaps saying this I am a cool kid after all?

(7/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/JUNKBREED

https://ragingplanet.bandcamp.com/album/junkbreed-music-for-cool-kids