For a band that essentially formed themselves around a novelty idea – to perform punk songs based on plot points from Buffy The Vampire Slayer – Sunnydales have a surprising amount of staying power. On this fourth EP, the Fresno punks sound better than ever. Granted, their lyrical schtick ploughs a similar furrow to before, and they display their love for Ramones’ past works so proudly, the influence isn’t ever subtle, but all of its predictability, ‘The Puppet Show’ EP shows them in a more confident way than ever before.
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INDUSTRIAL PUKE – Where Life Crisis Starts EP
When members of Rentokiller and Burst joined forces for a side project purely aiming to make some noise, it was pretty much a guarantee that the results would be uncompromising, but this debut from Industrial Puke is more impressive than first impressions would suggest. Their choice of name and logo appear rooted in the extreme – suggesting a blend of death metal, grindcore and gore-themed noise – but the reality is far preferable. Their music adopts more of a hardcore persuasion and the EP’s four hefty workouts bring early 90s hardcore and crust punk influences into the twenty first century with an almighty wallop.
¡Vamanos! – Streetwalker EP
This third release from ¡Vamanos! presents somewhat of a musical sidestep for the New York based noise making duo. On their first two releases, they delighted in taking blues and garage rock sounds into the most distorted corners of their musical imaginations. On this third release – a full three years on from the thrilling 45rpm 10” – Alex Knoche (gtr/vox) and Tyler Bower (drums) manage to be a bit more melodic without actually being that melodic…if that makes sense. Having worked their distorted blues to almost breaking point, 2019’s ‘Streetwalker’ EP applies a huge amount of grit to a set of tunes that draw from a few different influences than before, often delivering some of the fastest, loudest garage/punk ‘n’ roll sounds ever.
VOLT RITUAL – Volt Ritual
When it comes to mining classic influences, Polish stoner rockers Volt Ritual dig deeply on their debut release. Their self titled disc from 2022 takes the mighty Black Sabbath as its root inspiration and takes a very 70s approach to a heavy riff, but the material could just as easily have been recorded in the 90s at a time when Kyuss, Fu Manchu and Roadsaw were at their height. Its seven numbers are crammed with heavy riffs and fuzzy grooves; the production values call back to Rodger Bain’s early no-frills approach, and the band’s overall sound is one that a vast proportion of stoner and doom fans will take to in a heartbeat.
ROY SHAKKED – Throwback
Roy Shakked’s ‘Know Nothing’ EP (released in 2018) provided a superb look into his idiosyncratic and varied writing styles. By pulling influence from Eels, Jack White and Paolo Nutini, it covered a broad musical range, but still sounded like the work of a man with his own set of talents. He then threw a massive curveball by releasing an album’s worth of waltzes (fittingly titled ‘Waltzes’) which blended some low key pop with piano pieces, and bits that sounded as if they were written with soundtracks in mind. For the more patient listener, it was an album that offered a few cherry-pickable treats, but it suggested that Shakked always made music for the love of the creative process rather than chasing easy fame.