Unashamedly piss ripping or_ ripping the spine from fake metal pretenders? Either way _Closing In is a riot from the absolute offset: _'Four Walls' _sounds like every great song your cooler (everything relative, of course) mates headbanged to at school while you were too pussy to ask mum and dad for the latest Maiden record for fear that they'd object to the cover. And it continues in a likewise vein: Early Man may number but four arms and as many legs, but the twin powerhouses of Mike Conte and Adam Bennati bludgeon out enough titantic-proportioned metal across eleven tracks to satisfy even the most hardened of lanky hairy heads.

Of course, the irony factor isn't lost on Closing In: fantastically out-of-this-world lyric writing adds a distinctly Dungeons & Dragons feel to proceedings, which in turn only amplifies the retro impression. That considered, it nevertheless stands face to face with the likes of High On Fire and Mastodon in terms of supersized riff-o-rama - suffice to say that air guitarists the world over will sprain more joints than they ever knew they possessed to much of this. 'Thrill Of The Kill', 'Like A Goddamn Rat', 'Raped And Pillaged'; the titles damn well speak for themselves.

Originality? Pah, who needs that pretentious artsy shit when rocking's as good as this?