Operator Generator - Polar Fleet

(Man's Ruin)

Anyone who's had the singular displeasure of nodding off through a set by Jersey's slacker kings of loser-groove Core, with their bell-bottoms, Hemp tunics, and jazzy, free form explorations , knows that the overdriven biker rumble of stoner rock sometimes takes a downward spiral into navel gazing hippy junk. Well, it's with thunderous applause that I present to you Operator Generator, a band who swings so far to the other side of the barbed wire fence that their record label compares them to horse galloping, leather chest plated 'nuclear metal' freaks like Voivod and Celtic Frost. Of course, it goes without saying that the geniuses at Man's Ruin are on drugs; there's no pictures of the band in sweat pants and baseball caps, and the High On Fire/ Sea Of Green bombastic stoner-shred that rolls slow and heavy through Polar Fleet's grooves is sure to elicit more slurring "Right on, Maannn's" than fists in the air. But if it's heavy fucking metal you want, there's a literal geyser of molten riffs exploding out of this record, vocals that soar as high and free as Halford, or at least Lips from Anvil, and enough rollicking hooks to keep Pinhead in re-decorating ideas for weeks. OG sound like Thin Lizzy running from the law in bandaged feet, and that's a righteous noise indeed. Lines like "The challenge of frost is now brave" , however, are going to need some serious explaining.