Release Date - 29th July 2022
Label - Prosthetic Records
Words - Tony Bliss
Although 2016’s Hatred Swarm and follow-up Superstition were typified by their Entombed-core rumble and bug-eyed grind intensity, the fun lovin’, hard-rockin' heart pumping inside the Funeral Chic animal was always plain to hear. Even in spite of this, it is surprising just how dramatically Roman Candle, the Carolinian quartet's third full length, takes a scalpel to the bands former sound, embedding those extreme metal elements deeper into these ten songs’ riotously hell-for-leather frameworks, and thrusting the proto-everything sleaze plainly and manically to the front.
Fear not however, this thing still snarls and pukes with twice the authenticity of any of their peers, and still doffs its cap to a truckload of our world's most superior riff-wranglers. ‘Spit And Crawl’ channels Converge at their most furious, pissed up on moonshine and some particularly lethal hallucinogenics, whereas cuts like ‘Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ call to mind a Pazuzu-possessed Clutch jamming with Deathcrush-era Mayhem.
Elsewhere, a bewildering sax-led detour aside (‘Satisfaction’), the band sound hopped-up on the primitive metal/punk basics that brought us all here in the first place. ‘Lose’ and the album title track for example are the sort of mid-paced, groove-driven biker anthems that are in regrettably short supply in today's scene, shades of Ministry, Orange Goblin and even a touch of Rob Zombie imbuing what are gung-ho shout-along stompers straight out of the rock ‘n’ roll textbook. Don your leathers and crank it up. Loud.
7/10
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