There are many frustrations in life and among them for us as committed fans of SPUNK VOLCANO & THE ERUPTIONS fans is making up compilation CDs of their songs for blasting out car speakers. Such their prolific output for ear grabbing, throat inducing tracks over albums, EPs and singles, any CD made never satisfies as immediately we hanker for songs not included. Of course using digital devices in the vehicle would remedy that but we are old school here and now the dilemma has become more frustration prone as the UK alt-punksters unleash another eleven riots courtesy of Knackers Yard.
With stronger expectations before their releases here, the new outing soon persuaded as it stood rippling with the band’s irritancy with and equally enjoyment of certain aspects of life in a world giving more fuel to their contemplations and discontent by the hour. Knackers Yard is another riot of their fiercely individual punk kilned rock ‘n’ roll, the band’s sixth full-length and as those before them revealing and revelling in yet another twist and turn in the band’s songwriting and invention; yes it is familiar SV&TE territory and sound but with its own character and uniqueness in a long line of ear gripping, senses rattling incitements.
Knackers Yard is in many ways the band’s fiercest, most intense proposition yet but equally the most emotively and suggestively intimate proposal from them, the songwriting of frontman/guitarist Spunk Volcano bearing an open soul and heart amongst equally potent ruminations of old joys and new anxieties. Similarly he has drawn out the most feral and invasive hooks from his imagination yet too, ear worms lying in wait within tempests of sound and dispute which drummer Maff Fazzo, bassist Joey Strange, and guitarist Scott Bones employ and exploit with their own inimitable craft and invention. It all makes for another ferociously manipulative and voraciously rousing stomp with SV & Co devoured with matching gusto.
Band and release get straight down to business with opener I am a Capsule, Fazzo’s beats instantly inciting attention before riffs and rhythms uncage their harassment with feral but skilfully crafted rapacity. Equally, SV’s tones carrying insular belligerence and defiance tear at his fellow man, his antagonism in tandem with the song’s gall bred sounds.
It is a raucous, explosive start which the album’s following title track more than matched with pissed off breath and equally inflamed riffs. A clamorous snarl with predacious instincts in its virulent uproar, the anxiety of age is as much a visceral rage as a galvanic incitement while the following It’s all Kicking Off is a brawl of sonic and human intoxication around subsequent savagery and just as viral in its contagion; bruising rock ‘n’ roll at its best.
Job Opportunity similarly has the air aflame with cacophonous pleasure, its infection as poppy as it is merciless and a trespass fuelled by Fazzo’s ever manipulative drive alongside the growling voracity of Strange’s bass and the melodic strands and harrying riffs of Bones and SV. As ever, participation is the inevitable order of the moment and just as lustful for Madhouse and in turn Menky Man. The first is a tempest of sound and disquiet, prowling the listener before swinging its turbulence in an orchestration of temptation and trespass; a cyclonic serenade of unease and invitation while its successor is a barbarously psychotic slab of punk ‘n’ roll which had us roaring like there was no tomorrow.
Next up, Mordrake cements SV’s prowess at casting evocative balladry upon ears and thought, that intimate touch open in his croon and the understanding sounds around him. The impassioned might of the fiery track is soon matched by the irresistible rumination of My Tears get Washed Away where the sing-a-long addictiveness of SV&E songs, which has never been a lost quality, is bold and commanding within the galvanic, body bouncing ballad.
Between the two, Pit Bull Facelift erupts upon the senses like a pissed canine, a bestial surge of punk rock taking bites out of the senses and inciting a matching flail of one’s limbs and emotions.
Equally Morphine has a certain and individual mania which roars and surges through the veins of song and listener alike, another incitement for vocal chords and body revealing further fresh aspect and voracity in the band’s songwriting and sound.
Knackers Yard closes with another moment of emotive openness, Dead and the Mirror a provocative thought on mortality and life, a haunting fusion of atmospheric sounds and SV’s evocative breath and words. It is a ballad which is as impactful as the unbridled uproars and viral contagions the band cast just as expertly and eagerly around it.
I say around as there is one more treat that Knackers Yard offers exclusively to its CD version, Shit Stirrers and Scaremongers a bonus hard rock/punk rock bred incitement ripping chunks out of the world and one’s senses with fury laden hunger, hooks and grooves within as voracious as riffs and rhythms not forgetting SV’s vocal discord.
So once again SPUNK VOLCANO & THE ERUPTIONS has had us roaring, drooling and accosting their fine exploits with our inescapable participation; Knackers Yard another prime yet unique uproar from one of the UK’s finest rock incitements.
Knackers Yard is released July 1st via Avenue Recordz; available @ https://spunkvolcano.com/
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Pete RingMaster 30/06/2022
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Categories: Music
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