THE DAMNED THINGS

HighCrimes NUCLEAR BLAST

Never before has a supergroup made as little sense as The Damned Things, whilst somehow sounding as goddamn

brilliant as they do. Following their severely underrated 2010 opus Ironiclast, HighCrimes offers all the best elements of its constituents’ day jobs: there’s the pop-centric joviality of Fall Out Boy, the fierce thrash-iness of Anthrax, the punishingly catchy melodicism of Alkaline Trio and the slick Southern twinge of Every Time I Die, fusing, across ten blisteringly sharp and resoundingly dynamic cuts, into a visceral avalanche of new-wave punk anthems. The unlikely coupling of Scott Ian and Joe Trohman on guitar shines especially bright on the breakneck-paced “Cells” and kaleidoscopic “Storm Charmer”.