Black Wizard
Black Wizard
Self-released

Ok, so I’m not sure this album is entirely new, but it’s new to me, and as you’re reading this the young Canucks in Black Wizard are putting the finishing touches on the vinyl version, so that’ll be new, got it? And by finishing touches I mean they are silk screening every single goddamn record jacket. That’s instant cred right there, and not just because I have a raging boner for all things rock n’ roll and all things silk screen, but because there’s no doubt that during this awesomely messy DIY process one of ‘em will get ripped to the tits on cheap beer, lose a finger tip in a freak silk screening accident, and bleed all over the freshly painted jackets. I would kill a child with a shoe to get my hands on one of those soiled copies, let me tell you.

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#8 Trigger Effect – Dare to Ride the Heliocraft

This album may have been released digitally and on CD in 2008 (I know I was certainly listening to mp3s of the songs in 2008), but I recently picked up the vinyl version put out by Signed By Force and it says 2009 on it, so who am I to argue? Besides, this album is so insanely good (and straight-up insane) it deserves to make this list anyway, regardless what year it actually came out. Trigger Effect is a nasty kind of mayhem, a brutal force of punk rock fury so libelous that you’re likely to come away with bruises, both physically and mentally. Likewise, Dare to Ride the Heliocraft is 21 minutes of pure VENOM and the only thing crazier than the the album is Trigger Effect’s live show, which is highly volatile and inherently dangerous. This is one of my favourite Canadian bands right now and just like the patch on the back of my denim vest proclaims: Turbo Machine Ain’t Nothin’ To Fuck With.

Listen to “Nothing Says Action Like Giant Robots” from Dare to Ride the Heliocraft!

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