Warish

With a name like Warish, the San Diego noisy punk-metal trio assured listeners they were in for a maniacal bludgeoning from the get-go. But the band has never been as dark and bitingly vicious as the wholly ominous 'Next To Pay'. The band's mix of early AmRep skronk, dark horror rock and budget doom antipathy is taken to a whole new level on this 13-song invective. Inspired by early-Nirvana, The Misfits, The Spits and 'Master Of Reality'-era Black Sabbath, 'Next To Pay' keeps things heavy and pummeling at all times. The guitars are heavy and powerful, though decidedly not straightforward cookie cutter punk, more like Greg Ginn's and Buzz Osbourne's wiry contortions, and occasionally drenched in chorus effects. The rhythms bash right through it all with aggressive force ensuring that nothing gets overly complicated. Warish's cover of '80s Dischord Records punks Gray Matter turns the emotive flail of 'Burn No Bridges' into a Mot�rhead style basher.