EVIL BLIZZARD

Much more than just the pound-shop Slipknot.

If you’ve noted the masks and the four-bassist line-up and dismissed Evil Blizzard as a novelty band, now is the time to recant. With claims of having only ever rehearsed five times, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that The Worst Show On Earth is going to be 50 minutes of formless noise, but it’s actually a tightly arranged and melodic slab of riff-driven cosmic post-punk. Opening track Hello is a case in point, minor key piano prefacing a verse swathed in spacey reverb before a Nirvana-meets-Hawkwind chorus blows the song wide open. Recent single Fast Forward Rewind is bass-stabbing industrial pop, while Unleash The Misery recalls Crippled Black Phoenix. The songs are based around control and release rather than outright bludgeon, with singing drummer Side pitched midway between Lemmy and Bowie. Things get more experimental, but no less compelling, on the album’s final two extended tracks. Pull God From

The Sky features gothic picking and a young girl speaking ominous words as the song slowly processes towards a hammering crescendo. The title track is similarly apocalyptic, mournful piano and cello suddenly obliterated by a crushing downpour of noise.