{"id":14608,"date":"2013-10-07T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T00:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=14608"},"modified":"2013-10-09T14:11:22","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T14:11:22","slug":"album-review-asomvel-knuckle-duster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-asomvel-knuckle-duster\/","title":{"rendered":"ASOMVEL – Knuckle Duster (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASOMVEL
Knuckle Duster<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nBad Omen (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Considering these Brit-based metallers formed in 1993, I\u2019m stunned that Knuckle Duster<\/em> is only the second album by this bunch, emerging some four years after their 2009 Kamikaze<\/em> debut. Even so, these guys have an ungodly given right to be heard, because they\u2019ve quite literally hit the rusty nail on the head with the club hammer when it comes to creating a steaming amalgamation of dirty rock \u2019n\u2019 roll, oxidized angst and pissed off, beer drinking attitude. <\/p>\n

Sure, Asomvel have wrenched their old Venom, Mot\u00f6rhead, Tankard et al, albums from the dusty attic, but when the influences come together and it works this good, who is to argue about what\u2019s original or not? Asomvel\u2019s second opus lives up to its name and provides a veritable kick up the arse of UK metal, making us realise what this country has long been about and yet for so long neglected. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s an urban toughness about this 11-track sweat fest, which opens with the rollicking, well-oiled clatter of \u2018Dead Set On Livin\u2019\u2019. The track features a grimy guitar sound that has all the subtlety of a roaring Triumph bike, bolstered by the gruff vocal sneer of the aptly named Conan. Conan literally coughs and chomps his way through these punked up, alcoholic head-thumpers, which bring to mind comedy 80s Brit band Bad News, but if only for the straightforward \u201cin-your-face for the hell of it\u201d mess of it all. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s often been argued that the Asomvel never fully recovered from the death of original vocalist \/ bassist Jay-Jay Winter, and it\u2019s certainly taken guitarist Lenny Robinson (who formed the band with Jay-Jay) a long time to get the band settled again. But with Conan filling those hob-nailed boots, it\u2019s back to the dirt and grime of nature once again, because Knuckle Duster<\/em> really is a clean machine choking on gasoline.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cash Whore\u2019, \u2018Sheep In Wolf\u2019s Clothing\u2019 (with its infectious boogie riff) and the sinister chug of \u2018Trash Talker\u2019 are despicably 80s in their wretched, oil-soaked attitude, but they\u2019ve brought that garage sound into the modern day with ease, and offer us such simple melody but almost as if it\u2019s something we\u2019ve never heard before. <\/p>\n

It may take a while to scrape off the crust from the needle after this, but it\u2019s a record that\u2019s worth the damage, as the trio skip through the molten metal oomph of \u2018Waster\u2019, the driving, speedy \u2018Final Hour\u2019, and the rancid groove of \u2018Hangman\u2019s Rope\u2019 with its blues infested swagger. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing fancy here, but when rock \u2019n\u2019 roll is this pumped up and sincere, who needs progressive pomp? Disciples of Mot\u00f6rhead, Venom, Tank and Britain\u2019s unpolished metal upbringing will revel in this cesspit until the pigs come home. Jay-Jay would\u2019ve been proud of this foray into filth.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ASOMVELKnuckle Duster Bad Omen (2013)Rating: 8\/10 Considering these Brit-based metallers formed in 1993, I\u2019m stunned that Knuckle Duster is only the second album by this bunch, emerging some four years after their 2009 Kamikaze debut. Even so, these guys have an ungodly given right to be heard, because they\u2019ve quite literally hit the rusty nail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,774],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-asomvel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14608"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14611,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14608\/revisions\/14611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}