Add it to your christmas list
What a great compilation; "New Heavy Sounds Vol.2" is packed with noisy, distorted, jagged tracks with nasty riffs and dark hearts. This is the second volume in a hopefully ongoing series from NHS Recordings. Volume 1 was released earlier this year and featured the likes of Pulled Apart By Horses, Rolo Tomassi and Kong. Unlike the first release, this volume also includes some international bands amongst the home grown talent so we get great tracks from bands like Australian duo The DZ Deathrays and Swedish mob Skull Defekts (both of whom so impressed us at Swn Festival this year) alongside UK bands LaFaro and Mojo Fury.
The record has plenty of diversity in its 18 tracks and ranges from quirky art-rock to heavy duty sludgy metal, with so much great quality on offer there are more stand out tracks than can be mentioned in one review but a few of the best are the aforementioned DZ Deathrays with 'Rad Solar', their scuzzy, groovy garage rock is encapsulated perfectly in this tune; 'Splice The Mainbrace' from Slabdragger is a brilliantly nasty and dark slice of down-tuned guitars (you can hear the wobble on the strings) and grooveable beats and bass, fantastic for rocking out to; Gum Takes Tooth's offering, 'TannkJott' is as manic as we've come to expect from them with synths manipulated into searing squeals of noise and a ton of distortion; Mojo Fury remind us of their ability to combine solid, chunky riffs with melody and off kilter quirkiness on 'Deep Fish Tank' and Texan band True Widow impress with their majestic, scuzzy slow-core goodness.
There is so much on offer here that's worth checking out and we can't recommend enough that you track down a copy of this great record.