Blacklisters – Adult

Less a band, more of a bludgeon. Blacklisters’ songs crunch and lacerate like solid wooden clubs, mutilated with rusted nails. Opener Shirts swiftly accelerates from teeth-chattering, stabbing power chords to an almighty roar of post-pigfuck fury, applying muscle to slow-burning tension with consummate skill, and barely disguising the gloriously potent lunacy at its centre.

This is almost certainly their greatest strength – a hint of deranged chaos that’s somehow controlled, but barely. Vocalist Billy Mason Woods and guitarist Dan Beesley represent ground zero, as their voluminous squalls scorch everything within reach; meanwhile Big Ticker sees the rhythm section prowling menacingly around the perimeter, as though waiting to pounce and devour anything that should emerge from the mess. Cynics might suggest that Adult is little more than Jesus Lizard worship, but when naked aggression is allowed to seethe so magnificently, only a fool would dismiss it so callously. [Will Fitzpatrick]