Power – Turned On
Power couldn’t be more appropriately named. The Aussie trio’s hard-rocking debut originally came out in 2015 and was re-released last year courtesy of In The Red and it’s likely still ringing in the ears of anyone that heard it on either occasion. Retreating from some of that album’s thrashier and more varied content, Turned On is instead simply an uncompromising, unadulterated flow of full-throttle retro-rock.
Comprising members of the loud leaning Gutter Gods, Dribble, Soma Coma, Leather Lickers and Krömosom, guitarist and frontman Nathan Williams, bassist Isaac Ishadi and drummer Matt ‘Penky’ Penkethman really cut the brakes on Turned On, joyriding the out-of-control maelstrom through supercharged Glam and nose-bleeding, pedal-to-the-primitive metal. Severe guitar-on-guitar action winds tighter and tighter until it explodes in a high-octane collision of leather and sweat, thrusting so vigorously as to impregnate the front row from a hundred paces.
Raw and fun, Williams’ howling vocal brings equal damage during the early exchanges, the punishing pace not quite being maintained on the flip. On a rock-solid A-side, however, the pick of the bunch is harder to pick out of a line-up, the grooving “No Morals” probably winning out with its crunching, speeding guitars, breathless energy and pure Raw Power proto-punk attitude, wild soloing adding fuel to the flames. Bring your sharpest elbows to the pit for this one.
Best track: “No Morals”
~Turned On is released August 10th 2018 via In The Red.~