lafaro Easy Meat (18-track CD, £6.95)

Incendiary and evocative sophomore album from Belfast quartet LaFaro. Fans of The Jesus Lizard, McLusky and Cancer Bats will be thrilled to add this record their collections. Wall to wall, hardcore riffage; jostles intensely with the trenchant pen of chief songwriter and vocalist Johnny Black on the follow up to the band's warmly received eponymous debut record. Backed by one the greatest rhythm sections in the Irish hardcore scene - Black's songs scathe, expose life and love's injustices in sharp blasts of rhythmic noise. Ambitious in scope and scale, this record finds the band plundering their debt to metal, thrash and hardcore, whilst retaining their trademarked lyrical and melodic sensibilities. From Smalltown America: 'Touring partners of Helmet and Therapy? LaFaro's riffs are forged in the musical fire of a nation still wrestling with it's violent past and uncertain political future. Validating the concept of a long player being relevant in the digital age, this record is a visceral thrill from first needle-drop to run-out groove. Chiseled out in a deep Bangor winter, this is LaFaro's finest piece of work to date and is a testament to a great band's continuing mission to make brutal, life-defining punk rock.' //// "Sounds like a compilation of all the best bits from your old favourite bands squeezed into glistening, lubed up fist of metallic punk muscle" – Kerrang! // "Shot through with the intelligent humour of their countrymen... rock 'n' roll rarely sounds this sexy, fun and heartfelt" - Big Cheese // "Blistering riffs that bounce about the skull like the best of the post-grunge punk fraternity.” Mike Diver – BBC // "Rocks with a ferocious, frenetic spirit few bands could rival” – Rocksound //// The Tracklisting: 1 Full Tilt 2 Langer 3 Sucking Diesel 4 Wingers and Chips 5 Scully 6 Boke 7 Yes! 8 Have A Word With Yourself 9 Easy Meat 10 Easy Peasy Meat 11 Settle Petal 12 Pat-A-Cake 13 Off The Chart 14 Hum Strum 15 Slide On 16 Christmas 17 Meat Wagon 18 Maudlin