The Wreck "Sailors Grave"

(Crazy Love Records 2017)

Axe To Beat

Space Outlaw

The Nosferatu

Jungle Planet

Attack Of The Giant Bumblee

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Morphine

4-3-2-1

The Curse Of Frankenstein

Muchalinda

What Are You Doin'?

Sailors Grave

Since I last reviewed The Wreck's two-dittied-delight I have invested in some disposable underwear and sphincter-tightening tablets. I'm wearing a pair of those paper pants now and have taken 10 of the sphincter-tightening accidental shite stoppers. Thank fuck I pre-prepared. The album has exceeded my expectations and my bottom-bomb-halting muscle is indeed twitching with nervous excitement. The Wreck have gone straight into my top 5 of favourite bands. Their sound is right up my street. They bring something new to psychobilly and the songs are constructed in such a way that they are never predictable. Don't let the run-of-the-mill psychobilly song titles fool you. These songs are very different to the usual psychobilly fare. It continues along in the same vein as the teaser they released earlier in the year. Psychobilly with a twist of post punk new wave goodness. By the way, the two tracks from that teaser are included here but are completely reworked versions. That fact alone is sure to turn the teaser into a collector's item. But back to the album....the difficulty I have is finding the words to give it the praise it deserves. The production and mixing give it that old school psychobilly appeal. Clean, crunchy, slap heavy excellence minus the bullshit demonic vocals that came later. But at the same time it sounds fuck all like anything from the days of yore. The Wreck are very much their own thing. Cast your minds back to when psychobilly had oodles of originality. Frenzy, Torment, Demented Are Go, Guana Batz, Batmobile etc. all had their own sound. That was probably easier to do 30 years ago when there was nobody else to copy. Not so easy for a band nowadays though as you might think it's all been done before and influences turn into replicas. Not so with The Wreck. One of a handful of bands to emerge in recent times to stamp their originality all over the psychobilly genre both musically and visually. And with that said, this album for me is indeed album of the year!
The O'Prez

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