Unruled

One of Canada's notorious early D-beat/old school gutter punk outfits, Montreal's Unruled were renowned for their confrontational attack. They formed at the same time bands like Discharge, the Exploited and GBH were creating the double-time, galloping tempo, raspy vocal delivery and charged guitars that define the subcategory. In essence, they were the Great White North's answer to those acts, despite disbanding in the '80s. Having been reformed for a year and finally issuing their second release in almost two decades (an excursion that amusingly features three previously-released tunes), Unruled have officially returned, rendering virtually all colleagues a pale carbon copy of their venomous blitz. With Butchers Of Mayhem, the quartet sound just as passionate and powerful as they do dangerous, factoring in fresh bouts of straight-up rock reminiscent of elements of early VoiVod, when they were in their Motörhead on-even-more-speed era. Fast and furious, gripping and guttural, Butchers Of Warfare features a crisp, exciting attack virtually unequalled in aggro-punk today.