The Fucking Wrath

For their second full-length, California's the Fucking Wrath have taken their love of all things crusty and metal and crawled further into their antisocial hole with them. And that's not crusty as in Discharge. It's crusty as in Motörhead-meets-stoner rock; it's crusty as in loose, fun-time Mastodon by way of any number of old, crotchety trad metal bands. There's a doom influence as well, but the more upbeat stuff (Trouble, not Winter), and while the end result of all this is nothing groundbreaking, and those vocals are a bit grating after a while, it's certainly a good old school metallic time, and there are tons of great riffs ( "Goddess of Pain") and primitive caveman drumming to burn away 39 minutes. Philosophically, file next to Saviours or Red Fang ― the vibe and spirit are the same, plus the fact that there's a bit of songwriting smarts, some punk rock attitude and tons of metal. Really, the love of metal is all over this thing, and that's all we ask for.