Never having heard of this US band before, I looked at the name and began to imagine Skepticism covering some disco hits. Thankfully that was short lived as the words ‘punk’ and ‘powerviolence’ (though I’ll be honest that genre name still kinda puzzles me) lurched out of the PR sheet.
‘Made In America’ bellows its short, angry, stomping political presence and rock n roll swagger and once more brain catches a name from the past. Scissorfight. Just sped up with…well ‘Spit And Crawl’ is angry roaring punk ‘n roll, a bare knuckle rolling bludgeon with vocals spliced from a bear. Raucous riff, screaming lead and whisky smelling anger.
Bloody. Goddamned. Marvellous.
The title track seems almost classic rock for a moment before the gut punch vocals wade in and the song goes into a catchy, snaking strut. There is such a hefty low end to that sound though so the melody herein never floats away, instead it gets wrapped in dirt and chugging belligerence. ‘Satisfaction’ has a speedy, almost black metal riff before being bulldozed into the paranoid bellowing rock and roll. This is the sound of a barroom held hostage by a wild eyed mountain man out of his mind on cheap liquor….until it slides into an eerie collapse of jazzy saxophone and crying in his beer…
Weird.
‘Ain’t Going Nowhere’ with the great lyrics “I got an axe to grind and I ain’t going nowhere… ” is another horrible, fantastic bulldozing mess of threat and rant. ‘Lose’ leads into the grunt of ‘Built To Love’ which sounds like anything but, whereas ‘Born To Kill’ is almost gentle by comparison. But only by comparison. ‘Last Line Blues’ begins slow and deliberate, a classic but dirty blues breakdown, a saxophone addition, a neat song.
And they finish with probably the best choice of cover artist; the deliriously insane and brilliant Roky Erickson and ‘Two Headed Dog’. Clearly spiritually linked this is a fine cover- in keeping with the original but delivered in their own unhinged style.
So, a drunken raging punked up blast of anger and frustration blues with just something of the feel of Scissorfight bent so out of shape no one but me will even think it. But what this is just catching, dirty, heavy belligerence of the highest order.
Need to crack a few skulls; here’s your primer. Love it.
(7.5/10 Gizmo)
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