Not even a year after formation and Chris Reifert, he of Autopsy infamy, dons a guitar for this project of booze fuelled punk rock with subtle hints of metal on this debut full length. It can be dangerous to an established musician whose forte lies in another spectrum of extremity to venture into new territory and be accepted and not be branded as some sort of cash in wannabe vying for another output.
This is album is totally stripped back in terms of sound and production, the guitar sound is raw and caustic and Chris’s vocals are very different to his other acts, being cleaner but throaty bellows fitting well with the musical style that is entrenched in 80s nostalgia from the likes of Minor Threat, Black Flag and any other act of this time you care to name. Aggressively played the tunes are short, angry and in your face from the start when “Don’t Believe It” puts the boot in. I detected some occasional old hardcore touches from the likes of SNFU and a dirty rock ‘n’ roll edge that Motorhead did in the their very early days which makes this a very easy listen. “Glue Trap” is a cracking tune and even boasts a harmonica piece which had me grinning.
Much of this is very similar with the simple verses and song title choruses to ease the burden on the listener when shouting the lyrics. Short in duration, the 18 songs rarely surpass the couple of minutes barrier which makes this urgent and pure bloody minded aural vandalism that will imprint decent sized boot prints on your fragile memory. The metal aspects of this are rare, but there, and followers of Mr Reifert and his other compadres of Coralles and Cutler who guest on this, need to realise this is nothing like his other bands whatsoever. The emphasis on no frills punk is blatantly obvious avoiding the clichés of harmonised choruses that infect modern day so called punk these days, and whilst this is an album never to be groundbreaking or equal to the glory days when this genre was saturated with top notch bands from all over the world, it is a damn good album to put on, crack open a few cans and sit back and forget everything.
(7/10 Martin Harris)
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