You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

As much as lazy national stereotypes should be resisted, Perth’s Scalphunter aren’t doing much to distance themselves from typical lairy Aussie clichés with their bullshit-free, chaoti-cas-fuck approach to rock music. While it might elicit a frown from the Australian tourist board, Lies is great news for your ears if you love your music unrefined, whiskey-soaked and of the shit-kicking variety. Taking cues from The Stooges via Motörhead, Zeke, The Bronx and Wilson, this is an album that totally bypasses originality – which Scalphunter will undoubtedly be delighted to know – in favour of heart, guts and sweat. A riot from start to finish, songs like the breakneck throat-ripper Best Of Me will almost certainly inspire even the most passive listener to end up naked from the waist up, brandishing nothing but a broken beer bottle and a smile. Ripper.

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.

Scalphunter - Lies album review

Riotous Aussie rockers break open the bourbon