The Tenebrous Liar - Jackknifed & Slaughtered

If rock stars shared wardrobes there’s only one group that The Tenebrous Liar would split a rack with in its current guise. Brooding with dust-raising foot stompers, influential photographer Steve Gullick’s musical sideshow resembles Grinderman so much that you could picture the quartet decked out in traditional Cave garb. And you know what? They almost pull the look off.

Third album Jackknifed & Slaughtered begins with a fervent salvo of crunching guitar and looping bass that thunders its way into the cranium like a pneumatic drill. Barbed numbers such as Nothing to Say and No Guiding Light are inebriated thrills that throttle through a pulsating opening half.

From there, the pace regresses and with it comes a change for the worse. The title track’s muddy drone gives welcome respite, but narcolepsy-inducing trudges like No Relief and Nothing is Plenty are uneasy approximations of their antipodean counterparts at best. They might dress the part, but it’s not the clothes that make the band. [Billy Hamilton]