Metz are three extremely loud, dirty Canadians. Released on Sub Pop, the self titled album is to me, the very essence of the label that released it. Fuzzed out guitars played through a haze of distortion and sludge, imagine if Melvins and Mudhoney jammed together, this is what I’d liken Metz to.

The band have been around for a while now and have released a couple of singles, the latest, ‘Headache’ is a grunge-filled raucous two minutes and sums up the band perfectly.

The 11 tracks on offer here from Metz never outstay their welcome, and offer something refreshing in a time when grunge seems to mean teenagers posing in Nirvana t-shirts and asking who Kurt Cobain is at the same time. It’s a sorry state of affairs.

But Metz, however,manage to give the genre credibility again, standout tracks like ‘Sad Pricks’ and ‘Wet Blanket’ offer some great distorted vocals that sound allots as fuzzed as the guitars. There are sludgier moments in songs like ‘Knife In The Water’ which eschews angst an attitude.

Overall, I enjoyed this, my one complaint is that the songs do tend to blend together a little towards the end of the record, but thats largely ignorable for the absolute gems, especially the album closer ‘Negative Space’ which for me is the best song on the record. It’s noisy, and dirty, with feedback and some great guitar work, pounding drums driving it along to the albums finish.

I can imagine Metz live shows to be extremely loud and stuffed into tiny venues where the band would come into their own, each songs sounds like it would transition extremely well into that environment. Overall then, a good record that shows a lot of promise. I’m up for whatever’s next.

3/5

‘Metz’ by Metz is out now on Sub Pop Records.

Metz links: Facebook|Twitter|Tumblr|Bandcamp

Words by Ryan Clayton.