Two Riot City-flavoured tracks from The Last Survivors, one of them an Insane cover. ‘Teenage Days’ makes its presence felt with a caustic guitar motif and some sharp, slashing chords that manage to slice through the rather muffled production to neat effect. Their take on ‘Dead And Gone’, though, gets a bit lost in its own chaos: the frantic pace and fuzzy sound turn everything into a tinny blur that makes it seem like you’re on the bus, hearing a song you know through a stranger’s headphones. I wouldn’t say their side of the record is a write-off by any stretch, but it was definitely a bit of a let down given how psyched I was to hear a couple of new tracks from this gobby mob.
Vaxine, thankfully, deliver the goods. Opening track ‘War Criminals’ (few more of them about these days, eh?) elbows its way out of the speakers with a big, ragged, Motörhead-esque riff while ‘Conditioned Freedom’ and ‘Thread Of Hate’ are more rabid and UK82-sounding. Despite the feral energy, splintery edges and unfiltered yurghhh! of the vocals there’s also a nervy litheness to be found: notably when the clangour drops away and the sinewey bass runs keep things moving forward.