Ok, let's, as I do, start with some context and background. Some things you know (old. metal.). Building on that, let's just say I am and have always been a metal defender. Back in the day that used to involve defending the genre against those that found it to be non-musical or dumb or what have you. Now, in the mid aughts, I find I have to defend it against hipsters who want to ironically mine it for it's symbolism and dual guitar harmonies and the like. In either case, the "others" only have a book-by-the-cover knowledge and clearly it is my duty to educate and/or repudiate. I'll, to this day, offer to play Slayer's "Behind The Crooked Cross" and talk about how it swings. In fact, I'll wait for you to queue it up on Spotify right now and give it a "spin". See!!!! Anyway, recently I'd seen some updates on my Facebook page from Wizard Rifle. I, however, had no idea why I'd liked their page to begin with. My assumption was they played in the area a few years ago and I had written up the show for another online thing I once wrote for. The name gave me pause as wizards are kind of the hipster go to when infiltrating metal. Can I digress here and say I don't like classic metal imagery outside of metal? I don't read fantasy novels nor do I like horror movies much. But, when this imagery is combined with the all mighty riff, well, then I love it all and want to find the shirt that will make my girlfriend's eyes roll the furthest into her head. Eight breasted snake woman? I'll wear that with pride (And I do. And she hates it. And that makes me love it more).
Right. Wizard Rifle. Compounding my weariness was the fact that they were from Portland. How can I believe the authenticity of anything from that town? That didn't stop me from checking out their new record, "Here In The Deadlights" (see what they did there?). Guess what, nerds, it crushes. And I'll tell you what, when something rips as aggressively as this, you can forgive the name and the city from which it originates. Maybe one of you knows these guys and thinks they are total posers but my ears alone think otherwise. I want to compare them to Oozing Wound, not so much in sound but in the fact that both play as hard as possible. Sonically, maybe San Francisco's Black Cobra make a more appropriate comparison. Wizard Rifle play metal riffs with a punk rock ferocity and urgency. Maybe I'll throw in some Danava here as well, but instead of pot smoking in a van these guys are all speeded up in their folks' Toyota Camry wreaking havok on the suburbs.
The beauty here is that these kids also know how to not overstay their welcome. The album clocks in at 32 minutes. There are only 5 songs in those 32 minutes so, within the album, things get stretched out but there are enough riffs on this thing to fill 3 albums. But, before you succumb to riff overload, the album is over and done. Filler be damned. I can see this band expanding their sound in the future (the 8 plus minute "Psychodynamo" winds its way through post rock's chiming guitars through frenetic punk seamlessly) to fill up a longer album. For the here and now, though, I'm digging the 32 minutes of pure manic energy. If you wanna dig it too, check out this here bandcamp page and for fuck's sake order the vinyl while it's still available.
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