Cheerleader 666- Gutter Days (Sonico)

Cheerleader 666 (formerly just Cheerleader, but the devil wasn’t paying enough attention) are the meanest rattlesnake motherfuckers in Canada. OK, so Canadians aren’t known for their venom, so that sounds like an easy ride, but still, these ratfinks are evil. They are also fully dedicated to rock and roll, so much so that I’m pretty sure they’ll kill you over it, if they have to. All that’s well and good, but I know guys that can’t even tie their shoes that fit that description. Luckily, Cheerleader 666 have the juice, the thunder, the rock ‘em sock ‘em power to back all that bad assery up, and on this, an old-fangled 10” slab of thick wax, they walk it like they talk it- tall. They sound like the Dwarves and Thin Lizzy all at once, as they blaze through 6 tracks of scorching hard rock played with gonzo punk ferocity and a sense of trash-the-joint abandon that threatens to split them open at the seams, but never does. Yeah, it’s chaos, but it’s controlled chaos; more of a calculated sniper attack than bullet spraying lunacy. The blown-out production (no surprise, since it’s on Sonico, home of the Blowchunks, the most blown-out band in the entire world), unfortunately, detracts a bit from the devastating precision of their assault. There are mega-riffs on here that are so razor sharp, they could slice your head clean off- if you could hear them. On the other hand, it’s so in-the-red that it’s loud enough to singe the hairs on your arm- you just can’t play this thing at a reasonable volume, because it simply won’t let you. At any rate, under the layers of fuzz and din, there’s some classic motorpunk on display, like the punchy growler “Shitcity” and the melodic, slam-bang “Don’t Call Me Baby, Baby”, but the wicked riffs and teenage angst of “I Want Action” make it the real showstopper of the bunch. And it’s so fuckin’ true, isn’t it? Action. We all want it. Cheerleader 666, quite obviously, have it. So what are you waiting for, brother? Go get it!