ninehertz

Morbid and Miserable Records’ primary output style may not be exactly up my street, but its such a brilliant label, finding the best in the dishevelled, garage sleaze meets unapologetically heavy metal, biker-greased rock upsurge that I can’t help be fond of them, and listen ardently to everything they put out. And occasionally, one of their releases transcends my natural tastes and I’m sold – Portugal’s Spin the Skull being a great case in point.

They take the aesthetics of the trad heavy metal revival (which, judging by the recent Cosmic Vibration festival I attended is more fervent than ever) and bolt them on to a garage-punk’s stoner/doom interpretation. The first track tells you everything – they are wild, raw and up for a fight, but not without a generous gulping of swagger to their demeanour.

Key to this all, giving them some headroom amongst their peers, is the clear evidence of doom and other styles. For all the moments where comparisons are what you’d come to expect – The Death Wheelers being just one I recalled, on Circle – there’s variance which enlivens the album.

Lost Town, for example, could be some wild Japanese heavy psych blast but played at 45 instead of 33, whilst the following Heat Curse has something of a rockabilly jumpiness to its beginning. That it is broken entirely by the introduction of croaked vocals that are practically first wave black metal, with a Sabbathian middle and general metallic punk splurge, is maybe a return to the median but still gratifying.

It end with a raucous piece of stoner-punk – all beer-swilling, party-soundtracking messy goodness. Which sums it up well, to a degree – this will soundtrack many a blurry and hangover-inducing night of fun – but there’s more here than you might expect and that’s why it stands out.