NEGATIVE BLAST

Punk rock ain't necessarily sound pollution, but it should at least have the decency to sound pissed off. NEGATIVE BLAST were formed during the pandemic, which explains quite a lot about how this band fired up their engines out of sheer frustration. The San Diego crew's second album, "Destroy Myself for Fun", is an eight-song mugging with guitars that are fat and full, a drummer who hasn't got time to mess around and a vocalist that never deviates from a righteous, roar-like-you-mean-it path. It might be slightly reductive to say that NEGATIVE BLAST are doing hardcore punk properly — "Destroy Myself for Fun" works equally well as a balls-out rock 'n' roll record too — but this is deeply satisfying on a sonic level, and every one of these songs has the muscle and the spite to break your furniture, arguably before you even have a chance to do it yourself. Which, of course, you will.

With a riff that owes a limb or two to DEVO's "Freedom Of Choice", "Fireplay" is a deliciously rowdy introduction to NEGATIVE BLAST's steroidal hardcore. Played at a sturdy rock tempo, it is a classic punk rock assault with all the overlaid lead guitar bursts that such an endeavor demands. "Missinglink" is faster and more aggressive, like a POISON IDEA out-take after a month in the gym, propelled rabidly forward by drummer Mario Rubalcaba (EARTHLESS / OFF! ). Next, "Mac Dawg" taps into the post-Oi! fury of the contemporary street punk scene, driving ahead at a bullish pace and delivering suave hooks with the same snotty energy that informed THE BRONX's debut 2003 album. There is a suggestion of something catchier and more melodic festering beneath the surface. But NEGATIVE BLAST choose to keep the intensity high and every riff fills the available sonic space like STEVE JONES's Gibson Les Paul on "Never Mind The Bollocks".

"Nuwage" is a heavy hardcore rager with rough edges that slice the skin and a dynamic drop in tempo that heralds the commencement of lobotomized clobbering time; "Futurerock" is perkier and more pugnacious, as it sticks rigidly to a single chord and barrels relentlessly forward, awash with incensed anxiety, but smart enough to flash its anthemic, roots rock teeth; and "I'm In Love" is straight up American hardcore delivered at a hysterical pace, dripping with societal turmoil, and as lean, mean and magnificent as a runaway tank with no brakes.

Rounded out by the gnarly, hammer-wielding skirmish of "Infested", and the lengthier, arena-punk cut 'n' thrust of "Denial", "Destroy Myself for Fun" is a punk rock record for those who don't view the genre as a justification for self-obsessed bullshit. NEGATIVE BLAST are liberated souls who view the world through squinting, cynical eyes concluding that the best method to escape Hell is to drown out its fiery fervor with the sound of honest, hard-edged, three-chord rock 'n' roll. On this evidence, they absolutely have a point.