AIDS Wolf vs. Athletic Automaton

Clash of the Life-Force Warriors brings together two like-minded noise-rockers, Montreal’s AIDS Wolf and Providence’s Athletic Automaton, for one recording session. Purportedly, each of the bands started off in their regular formations and then, as the hours passed, the lines of membership began to blur and all hell broke loose. This shouldn’t come as that huge a surprise: these two units have toured together numerous times and have a good sense of each other’s moods, so the results are often on par and even interchangeable with their respective back catalogues. The ten tracks here clock in at just over 35 minutes, with both bands tackling two tracks apiece then joining forces for the remaining six. The stronger of the two bands, Athletic Automaton, often veer towards noir-ish psychedelic metal reminiscent of early Hawkwind and Makoto Kawabata’s Mainliner. AIDS Wolf deliver more of that plucky no-wave jaggedness that earmarks their live shows: Chloe Lum banshee screams atop a cubist’s rendering of early post-hardcore classics. Neither band use this collaboration to push into new territory and so it’s the end of this record that works best as a tour memento from two bands who obviously share a musical kinship and have spent a lot of time on the road together.