Cor, you wait an eternity (well, a couple of months) for a wailing banshee of a rock record, and then two drop into your lap (almost) at once. Hot on the howlin' heels of The Hunches' blistering 'Hobo Sunrise' comes Call Me Lightning's debut, 'The Trouble We're In'. Call you lightning? How's about I call you a flippin' shitstorm?
This Milwaukee three-piece (named after a song by The Who) count former members of Haymarket Riot and the rather splendid Hero Of A Hundred Fights amongst their ranks, and it shows - 'The Trouble We're In' is amazingly accomplished, bearing in mind it's, at base level, a fairly straight-up punk rock-cum-garage record along the lines of The Minutemen being covered by a straight-faced Jesus Lizard. Guitars are battered and skins leathered, as you'd expect, but whereas lesser-experienced acts might slip into chaos, Call Me Lightning maintain control of their compositions. Therefore, whilst the likes of 'We Be Dragons' and 'Asses To Ashes' threaten to veer wildly off the rails a dozen times during their timespan, they're reeled back in by a trio of hardened professionals. You could call it clinical; I call it classic.
Add utterly bonkers artwork to the mix (really, the inside of this cover is fucked up), and you have a record that not only breaks away from Revelation's hardcore tradition in eye-popping and jaw-dropping fashion, but also might just creep into the inevitable end-of-year equation.
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8Mike Diver's Score