Cleopatra 2017
Burstön
Umlauts up and aces high: British bombers go down with nonsense and deliver a no-brainer nuclear assault.
There’s a reason this band’s name and their debut album’s opener rhyme with “Ace Of Spades”: the York trio’s roar was reared on Lemmy-patented nihilist metal, and they have no qualms about such an overt tribute, a piece titled “Rock ‘N’ Roll” expressing the whole complexity of the guys’ method to the madness. With three pieces out of eleven under a 2-minute mark and two barely crossing a 3-minute margin, it’s all very much to the point, given the entire point is to have fun, and the fun is being had on the likes of “Turn It Loose” and “Miss ‘B’ Havin’” as singing bassist Smell propels his pseudo-splenetic diatribes to Dr. J. Horn’s acid-spiked guitar and Filthy Deviant Bilo’s frenetic drums.
“Step Aside” may clear the way for classic, contagious licks to seep through punk veneer but, of course, epicness has nothing to do with “Let Battle Commence” – it’s more of a pub brawl thing – yet when both channels wrap the listener’s ears with a “Traitor Collaborator” chorus, a sharper perspective of the band is revealed. Unfortunately, the record’s over before this depth can be explored, although the brief run allows the songs to accumulate a great energy which should see a follow-up album shoot up the charts.
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