Gaze if you will upon the size of these riffs. I kid you not, Turbowolf’s sophomore effort ‘Two Hands’ is a bona fide avalanche of monstrous, single-mindedly face-melting tracks. It’s not just the writing either, it’s also the monolithic intensity of tones and textures employed. Combining elements of punk, classic rock, and stoner, the band have dropped, to my eyes, one of 2015’s finer aural assaults. Sceptics won’t be for long. There’s nothing particularly ferocious to it, however, in that the band shouldn’t be mistaken for aspiring to the raw fierceness of hardcore, for example. Turbowolf quite evidently swear only by the power of fun, which results in a joyous, raucous energy. Every element of the band’s style is conceived around getting the most fun out of it: the choruses and hooks are predictably catchy the album over, the riffs ooze with personality, and there’s a surprising element of variety going on throughout.
Particular highlights include ‘Rabbit’s Foot’’s fuzz-heavy riffage; ‘Invisible Hand’’s multiple shifts from floaty album opening to blistering punk track to stoner finale; ’Rich Gift’’s superb prog-rock tangent (which only goes to show they’ve mastered the long-form as much as the short); and finally their stoner finale ‘Pale Horse’ and the micro moment of greatness that is interlude ‘Toy Memaha’.
If you like rock music, I’d struggle to believe you cannot appreciate what Turbowolf are doing at the moment. They not only honour the very tradition of rock, they appear to embody it completely. ‘Two Hands’ is a belter, and the most entertained I’ve been by any piece of music this year.
3.5/5
’Two Hands’ by Turbowolf is out now on Spinefarm / Search & Destroy.
Turbowolf links: Facebook|Official Website|Twitter
Words by James Berclaz-Lewis (@bearclawlewis)
