-(16)-

Dream Squasher RELAPSE

Californian crushers return to continue their hate campaign

-(16)- were nasty back in 1993 and they’re still nasty now. You can follow the red line of vitriol from the LA quartet’s crushing new material back to their

Curves That Kick debut, but age has conferred greater intensity and an even more muscular, thuggish gait. Opener Candy In Spanish is a bursting temple vein in song form, driven along on a scraping, Unsane-like shuffle and lurching, sledgehammer grooves. In contrast, Me & The Dog

Die Together is flat-out rock’n’roll, albeit rock’n’roll that drives a combine harvester through your living room. Rippling Hammond organ gives the strung-out blues-doom of

Sadlands some Clutch-like sparkle, while Acid Tongue strips -(16)-’s core riffing down to a vicious, minimalist thud. So many riffs, and all of them killer. ■■■■■■■■■■

FOR FANS OF: Crowbar, Melvins, Conjurer

DOM LAWSON