Album review: The Thirsty Giants – ‘Escape The Junkyard’

They can certainly rage with the best of them, and the likes of ‘This Thing Called Junk’ and ‘Nice Urn’ will get your pulse racing as they go blasting past in a blur of snot-nosed vocals, powerhouse drumming and barbed-wire guitars. They’re now clearly driven by something far more profound than lockdown-induced boredom, and although some of their earlier recordings are pretty good, there’s little that hits as hard as, say, this record’s vitriolic ‘F.R.F.A’.

We particularly like the slow-fast-slow dynamic of ‘Endless Repulsion’, with Holden spitting his words out with palpable disgust at the world around him, and the more melodic punk rock stylings of ‘No Future’. There’s also something of a surprise in store on final track ‘Wake’, which boasts the kind of crunchy NYHC-style riffing that should spur even the most reluctant of crowds into a flailing mess of limbs – as should that evil-sounding breakdown at the end. Proof enough that this lot are a versatile bunch.