Let crusty joy be unconfined.
Extreme Noise Terror are not just back, but on the kind of terrifyingly intense and belligerent form that first made them such a satisfying fist to the face nearly 30 years ago. Given how frequently hardcore punk has been hijacked by inane non-entities in recent decades, the sound of these veteran maniacs at full pelt seems even more thrilling, timely and necessary in 2015. It certainly helps that songs like Punk Rock Patrol and No One Is Innocent stick proudly and pointedly to the original, ultra-chaotic ENT sound.
Always fast, always furious and with that deranged twin-vocal attack (now featuring former The Rotted man Ben McCrow alongside the ageless Dean Jones) erupting from the speakers like bricks through an EDL goon’s front window, visceral, two-minute assaults like Sheep In Wolf’s Clothing and the genuinely startling Cage Paralysis are the equal of any of the band’s early classics.
The production is nasty and raw but with plenty of contemporary clout and the accelerator remains floored for the full but laudably succinct 27 minutes. Punk as fuck.
