When your ranks include former members of The Blood Brothers, The Locust and indie-experimenters Yeah Yeah Yeahs, playing it safe is far from the agenda. Over ten years since their first batch of material, the eventual debut full-length by Californian five-piece Head Wound City, ‘A New Wave Of Violence’, is as beautifully erratic as their pedigree dictates.
Spiralling around the exceptional lead single ‘Scraper’ – undoubtedly a contender for track of the year – the record presents an unrelenting barrage of noise. ‘Palace of Love and Hate’ spits with barbaric anger, ‘Head Wound City, USA’ delivers a screeching kick in the teeth and ‘Closed Casket’ packs a rock and roll infused punch in the gut.
Yet for all its unapologetic ferocity, the likes of ‘I Cast a Shadow for You’, ‘Avalanche in Heaven’ and album closer ‘Love is Best’ offer the record unsettling rest bites. Where the brutal speed drops the experimental moments break through, tinged with dark and nightmarish tones. All the while ‘A New Wave Of Violence’ lives up to its name, triggering a new dawn of phenomenal ruthless disorder.
BEN TIPPLE