Baby Godzilla: Don’t Touch That Dial (Venn Records)

‘Brutal’ and ‘lethal’ really are words used far too easily these days. When taking into account the revolting gargantuan slabs of pure bastard-heavy music that Baby Godzilla create though, you’d be likening those buzzwords in question to a Nickelback record by the time you’ve heard this bunch.

Although it boasts a multitude of time changes and spasmodic drum wallops, ‘Don’t Touch That Dial’ still reeks of beer-fuelled vigor and charisma; you can’t help but imagine simply how hard they were battering their instruments to capture the energy on the recording. Think along the lines of Converge and Dillinger but having a lot more fun.

The single is anchored by their full-throttle, torturiffic video for ‘Don’t Touch That Dial’, where the four lovely lads are tied to their chairs and, according to a cryptic wheel of fortune, are assigned to forfeit a dozen different categories of inhumane punishment. It’s like a TV game show, but presented by John Leslie or someone… oh wait.

With a video like this it’s no surprise that attention has been slightly drawn away from the music itself, leaving viewers somewhere in between flabbergasted and traumatized. Nevertheless, a worthy talking point, especially in these current times of MTV wrecking balls et al.

Flip side ‘Pig’ is a slightly more balls-to-the-wall affair. It keeps to a punky 4/4 and is prime fodder for knocking yourself against the wall several times, until an absolute killer of a riff is unleashed after forty seconds, and then re-caged again in a sandwich of fury. This would make a great encore track at a gig, if they got told they had one minute left if they wanted.

The main thing one has learned today is how these guys generally refuse to stick to the script. And that’s to be applauded at most times. Bravo.