Trigger Effect
Versitis Maximus
Turbo Machine Enterprises

Trigger Effect is a cyclone of punk n’ roll danger, all spit and teeth and shirtless fury, and because of that they’ve been one of my favourite bands of the last few years. Their debut, Dare to Ride the Heliocraft, was anarchic brilliance, a razor-sharp combine of venom, mayhem, disaster, and juvenile antics. So, in some ways, I felt sorry for their new album, Versitis Maximus, even before I heard it because I knew it was going to have one hell of a time blasting its way out of that dark and bloody shadow. Well, it seems I was worried for nothing because the Montreal quintet doesn’t seem to know any other gear than full fucking throttle, and Versitis Maximus finds the band flying high through desperate skies on wings of barbed wire once more. With the exception of the attention paid to crafting catchier songs, and a stronger emphasis on gang vocals, it still sounds like Trigger Effect lives off of a steady diet of turpentine and hate, tearing through all 11 songs in under 23 minutes as if they’re late to a party they intend to crash. The album also leans heavily on the ludicrous, as songs like “Leave Me Stallone ” (with lyrics made up entirely of Rambo quotes), “Sect Rat Hurries Dei” (sung in French), “300 Hairy Bears” (sung in a language that may or may not be Russian), and “Party ’til You Die Everyday ’til You’re Dead” (self-explanatory) prove that the band does not intend to turn off the Turbo Machine any time soon. And why should they? If the gutter fits, crawl in it.

Listen to “Ghostie De Tabarnak” from Versitis Maximus!

Black Sleep of Kali
Our Slow Decay
Small Stone

Debut album from Denver’s Black Sleep of Kali, which, despite its name, is a furious force of sludge metal devilry that’s more whack-a-mole doom than it is a slumbering death crawl. And it’s no easy feat keeping up that kind of  eternal energy with an average run time of six minutes for the eight songs laid down here, but I suppose anything is possible when you’re drawing your annihilation inspiration from a dark and violent goddess. Right, so it all rolls heavily along like an avalanche of Baroness worship, but the sonic assault of Our Slow decay isn’t without its groovy riffs, hardcore fluctuations, and punk metal aesthetics either, which makes for a fairly dynamic, anarchic listen that will not only knock your walls down but will piss on your rug, too. Definitely a big-balled gut bucket of bubbling black action, this one.

Listen to “The Crow and The Snake” from Our Slow Decay!

Buy Black Sleep of Kali’s Our Slow Decay from Small Stone!