Heavy Cream

The thin line between metal and punk is a hard one to walk. Even at their height, bands like the Runaways and Girl School struggled to sustain their brightest moments over the length of an entire album. Despite clearly gleaning inspiration from both groups and their many, many descendants, Nashville three-girls and a dude quartet Heavy Cream don't appear to be looking to capture bratty pop glory, and they're all the better for it. Second time out, they've hooked up with lo-fi garage guru Ty Segall to add some "oomph" to the bottom end of their garage-meets-punk tunes. The result sees the four-piece moving away from the spritely JEFF the Brotherhood-esque sound of their debut, Danny, and finds them setting up shop next door to bands like Screaming Females, albeit without the guitar chops to match. The overblown fuzz of the guitars, at times, threatens to overshadow the songs, as chords tend to bleed into a single note buzz. But singer Jessica McFarland's impassioned delivery carries many of the tracks and the new, bigger sound suits the band well, giving them a unique sonic identity amidst a cluttered field.