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You’d be a fool to yourself if you thought Kadavar’s appeal wasn’t down in large part to their eye-popping, boutique Neanderthal look.

But the other reason people flock to their shows is a self-contained, feelgood factor that’s more immediately embraceable than their more nostalgia-stricken Swedish 70s-styled counter-parts.

As the retro-futurist cover for Berlin – a paean to the dynamism of their home town – suggests, Kadavar are taking a step back in time as a surer footing for looking forward, the swaggering garage rock of opener Lord Of The Sky a surefire dandruff-loosener and a call for liberation the hirsute trio pursue throughout.

From the radiant, blues-bolstered stomp’n’squelch of Last Living Dinosaur, interjected with radiant skrees, through swirly psych, proto-metal and NY-style punk, Kadavar’s exuberant, throbbing groove and over-spilling leads treat their sources like a vivid, endlessly hospitable playground.

Having freelanced regularly for the Melody Maker and Kerrang!, and edited the extreme metal monthly, Terrorizer, for seven years, Jonathan is now the overseer of all the album and live reviews in Metal Hammer. Bemoans his obsolete superpower of being invisible to Routemaster bus conductors, finds men without sideburns slightly circumspect, and thinks songs that aren’t about Satan, swords or witches are a bit silly.