GHETTO GHOULS - s/t LP

Highly recommended.

Austin, Texas punks Ghetto Ghouls have been making music together since they were 14, and after a decade they finally put out their debut LP. The band's received several comparisons to their hometown hardcore forebears - Dicks, Stick Men With Ray Guns, Scratch Acid, and so on. The sonic similarities are definitely there, and viewing grainy footage of frontman Corey Anderson's sweaty, shirtless, flailing performance style at Austin's Beerland venue confirms that this is intense sh!t.

Despite the callbacks to the past, the Ghouls do more than ride the coattails of SST and Touch and Go's back catalogs. Situated in the contemporary Austin rock landscape, their sound falls somewhere between the immediacy of OBN IIIs and the Flesh Lights and the oddball headiness of Spray Paint and Beth Israel.

Many releases in this sphere focus on fuzz, volume, and speed to compensate for subpar songwriting, but Ghetto Ghouls' skills are a cut above, so don't get too distracted by their slovenly presentation.

They grab you out the gate with Dan LeVine's blistering guitars and Ian Rundell's pummeling drum onslaught, punishing eardrums with the introductory feedback of "My Hands" as those screeches eventually give way to another breakneck drive. Over and over again, they dish out the same indomitable belligerence they've mastered in a live setting.