I’ll admit that the reason I listened to this Norwegian outfit was because of their name—Clint Eastwood is my spirit bear. But if you ever wished Kverlertak had somewhat intelligible English vocals, or that The Hellacopters had somewhat unintelligible sludge-metal vocals, then you’d probably dig this 31-minute debut.
Opening track “H-Bomb” hits you like a nuclear weapon, two and-a-half minutes of fuzz and a cloud of bong smoke, kinda like Dixie Dave jamming with Black Flag. “Mindlessness” is much shorter, a 67-second old-school hardcore assault. Despite its foreign title, “Vik Bak Meg Satan” is actually sung in English, a slow streetcore stomper that namedrops Suicidal Tendencies and makes a not-quite-polite request for cocaine in the chorus. There’s even a Ghost-style singalong toward the end…
The band certainly has a sense of humour, as displayed in the Cro-Mags moshpit throwdown of “I Lied About Being a Hardcore Man” (which namedrops both the Cro-Mags and Gorilla Biscuits), the catchy, melodic hardcore of “West Coast Exile” or the undiplomatic mid-paced vitriol of “International Asshole.” And you gotta love the refrain of “I need a place to drink/not a place to think” on 10th tune “I Need a Place to Drink.” These guys make hardcore fun again!
thegoodthebadandthezugly.bandcamp.com
