The Good, The Bad & The Zugly – ‘Research And Destroy’ (Fysisk Format)

The Good, The Bad & The Zugly – ‘Research And Destroy’ (Fysisk Format)

The one and only time I saw GBZ was in a London pub basement a touch over six years ago and they blew the place a part. Then they were pushing their second and possibly finest album Hadeland Hardcore and as fantastic as they were that night, no one in that room would ever have thought that the press release for album number five, Research And Destroy would begin –

“The NEW ALBUM from the Kings of Scandipunk! Fronted by singer Ivar Nikolaisen from KVELERTAK!! “

It’s just bonkers!!!

These Norwegian punk rock terrors’ sound snuggles somewhere in the same ball park as fellow country men Turbonegro (both bands feature ex-members of Norwegian glamsters Silver) but with a far more aggressive and abrasive edge. Perhaps with album number five some of this jagged, raw hate has been polished away to appeal to the Kvelertak fan base, it’s still hard and heavy but maybe not as raw and hungry as the aforementioned  Hadeland Hardcore or even it’s follow up Misanthropical House but it’s still a fine12” slab of plastic that’ll sit deservedly in your top ten of 2022.

First up ‘What’s My Rage Again?’ Spends a good minute building up and up and up in full metal guitar grandeur before launching into a spite-filled bombastic banger. Maybe it gets a bit Maiden-esque in places but it’s a great place to start.


Hot on its heels comes ‘Song For A Prepper’, another great tune with another long intro. Less aggressive than previous stuff and maybe a nod to the expanded Kvelertak audience

Third up, ‘Bridge and Tunnel Guy’ gets its own video and is a fine balance of aggression and hooks.


‘The PKA Took My Money Away’ is far less metal than its predecessors and is by far my favourite tune so far. This feels like the most GBZ-like song so far.

‘Nostradumbass’ carries on the mid-album hump for me, a fine mid-paced tune not a million miles from Ivar’s previous band Silver. There’s a video for this bad boy too.


While ‘Diet 1-2-3′, may lean a little to Backyard Babies territory (not a bad thing at all), ‘The Power of Beer’ is the kind of GBZ banger that ‘Research And Destroy’ has been a little light on.


‘One-Dimensional Man’ is a nasty pop song and boasts one of the strongest choruses on offer. I guess Fysisk Format agrees too because there’s a video for it.


The penultimate track ‘The Original Incel’ is another banger. GBZ to the max, while closer ‘Here Come The Waterworks’ is a far more sedate affair. Decent enough, but like several of the tracks that have gone before it, maybe a bit too much of an offering to their expanding metal audience. But hey, good luck to them.

So there you have it. Ten tracks in just over half an hour, long enough to love but not quite enough to blow you away.

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Author: Fraser Munro

PELAGIC RECORDS SIGN WOLVES LIKE US AND ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘BRITTLE BONES’

PELAGIC RECORDS SIGN WOLVES LIKE US AND ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘BRITTLE BONES’
After 5 years on hiatus, WOLVES LIKE US will be releasing their 4th album titled ‘Brittle Bones’ on October 25th via Pelagic Records. To support the release, the Norwegian four-piece will embark on a European tour in December with PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS, whose vocalist Gared O’Donnell is also making a guest appearance on the Wolves’ upcoming album.
Formed in Oslo, Norway in 2010, WOLVES LIKE US emerged out of the ashes of local punk / hardcore pioneers JR EWING, AMULET and INFIDELS FOREVER, among others. The new band quickly made themselves a name as a super-energetic live band in the local scene, blending equal parts Quicksand and Afghan Wings with their own idiosyncratic post-hardcore sound. After only 5 shows, they instantly signed with Prosthetic Records for a 3 album deal, and hit the road for tours and shows with KVELERTAK,PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS, SWING KIDS, JUNIUS and GALLOWS and festivals like Oya or Groezrock in the months to come. 3 releases saw the light of day under the roof of Prosthetic Records since,Late Love (2011), Get Gone (2012) and Black Soul Choir (2014). 
 
After almost 5 years of family responsibility- induced hiatus, the 4-piece is now back with a killer new album: Brittle Bones, demoed by Bjarte from KVELERTAK and mixed by Scott Evans of KOWLOON WALLED CITY, shows a grown up and more dynamic wolf pack than ever before. „There was less tension this time, we almost didn’t argue at all – which is rare for us“, says drummer Jonas Thire. „A lot has happened to us at a personal level. Positives, like we all have kids now. But dark shit too. There’s been a divorce. Lars has been really sick. He wrote the lyrics as a kind of diary to deal with issues like abuse, literally and figuratively.“
 
The band has been good friends with iconic post-hardcore band PLANES MISTAKEN FOR STARS for years, whose singer Gared O’Donnell visited them in Oslo randomly that week when WOLVES LIKE US were tracking vocals for Brittle Bones. He ended up laying down his second guest appearance for the band: „On a drunken night in May after Lars, Toy and Rune (the engineer) had taken him out for one too many beers“, comments vocalist & guitarist Lars Kristensen… „we ended up shirtless doing
vocals“.
 
Lyrically, the red thread that goes through Brittle Bones is the topic of «honesty», which is to say „dealing with demons in a real way, facing them and giving them the middle finger so to speak“, says Lars. Brittle Bones is juxtaposing the catchy and the raspy, the pretty and the ugly, comfort, and disturbance of such… for the essence of art can only be understood as equally „disturbing the comfortable and comforting the disturbed“, says Lars.
UK tour dates w/ Planes Mistaken For Stars
 
1st December, Manchester – Soup Kitchen
2nd December – Bristol – The Exchange
3rd December – Birmingham – The Flapper
4th  December – Nottingham – Rescue Rooms
5th December – Glasgow – G2
6th December – London – The Lounge
 
www.facebook.com/wolveslikeusss
https://pelagic-records.com