Album Review: Ginger Wildheart - "Teeth"

Ginger Wildheart has always been a man to hit you with new material when you're least expecting it and to be honest, following on from the worthy but rather sedate Sinners album from last year, the prospect of something showing off the harder edge to his output was definitely something that piqued our interest.

Teeth is very much a back to basics punk effort, crashing through 16 tracks in just 26 minutes and seeing the G-man at arguably his heaviest since the brutal Mutation albums of a few years ago. Right from the opening political tirade of Not My Country (very much an anthem for these times where the choice between Sunak and Starmer increasingly has the feel of two eunuchs fighting over a punctured condom), the guy definitely means business here and this album is pretty much one concrete-heavy right hook after another as he skewers religious bigots (Digital Elimination, Thoughts And Prayers), online mob mentality (Witch Hunt), braindead tabloid readers (Happy John) and the UK's archiac drug laws (DRUGUK) with equal venom. This is very much old school hardcore in the GBH/Poison Idea mould and all the better for it - there's only really the Clash style This Is Survival that lets more of a melody bleed through but overall this brutal approach suits the material down to the ground. You get the impression that Ginger has been saving up some of this venom for a long time and the likes of Straight To Hate and No definitely feel almost like an exorcism of angry thoughts that you've let get stored up in your head for much too long.

If it looked like Ginger was maybe heading off to calmer pastures with the Sinners then Teeth is very much proof that the anger and energy that's informed so much of his best stuff down the years is very much still there. Unfortunately it's now been taken down off Bandcamp but if you missed it during that 24 hours it was up there then I strongly recommend you keep an eye out for when it comes out officially. A welcome reminder of what this man is capable of.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Album Review: The 69 Cats - "Seven Year Itch"

Image
  Started up as a side project a decade or so ago by frontman Jyrki from Finnish goth/glam legends the 69 Eyes and guitarist Danny B Harvey (Lemmy's six stringer in his Headcat side project), the 69 Cats have been joined by Damned drummer Rat Scabies for this, their second album. A hell of a pedigree then, but can this album live up to it? Pleased to report that the answer is yes - opener She's Hot  kicks in with a winsome mix of Jyrki's Glenn Danzig-meets-Pete-Steele croon, Harvey's frenetic shredding guitar and Scabies' pounding drums and when it's followed by a superbly sinister cover of Post Malone's Hollywood's Bleeding , you know we're in safe hands here. You're The Kind Of Girl  starts off as a mid-paced rocker before unexpectedly breaking into a full on psychobilly breakdown for the middle eight. Decent enough but it feels like a bit of a step down after that opening one-two. However, the spaghetti westernisms of Good Time To Die  take th
Read more

Garbage Days Revisited #38: Slaughter & The Dogs - "Do It Dog Style" (1978)

Image
"When you're gonna sink so low/That's when you wanna have another go..."  - Slaughter & The Dogs  - You're A Bore I've often said in past editions of both Sounds From The Junkshop and Garbage Days Revisited that the best rock 'n' roll, whether it comes from the midwest diners of the '50s, the garages of the '60s, glam rock, punk rock or anything since, is something deeply primal. It's the sort of thing that makes you want to neck a beer, howl at the moon and headbang along until your neck snaps. And that's, to me, what makes Slaughter & The Dogs arguably the great unsung heroes of '77 punk. The group were there right at the beginning of punk and were straight out of the gate with the Buzzcocks in the first wave of Manchester punk although as their name (half Bowie's Diamond Dogs  and half Mick Ronson's Slaughter On Fifth Avenue ) suggests, their roots actually lay in glam rock a couple of years earlier. Their first s
Read more

Nite Songs Top 50 Albums of 2023 - Part 1 (50-41)

Image
  Okay, here we go friends, once more unto the breach... You know how this thing works now, ten albums a day from now until New Year's Eve - Bandcamp links (where we've got 'em) by clicking on the title. Let's do this. 50.     ASH - "Race The Night" I suppose the big problem with Ash is that, for better or worse, they will always be singing over the echoes of their glory years in the late '90s and early '00s. However, Race The Night  might just be their strongest effort since Meltdown  way back in 2004 - an enjoyable slice of power-pop with the tunes and melodies of old rightly pushed back to the fore where they belong. One of the more unexpectedly enjoyable comebacks of 2023. *** 49.     OBEY ROBOTS - "One In A Thousand" This collaboration between Laura Kidd (She Makes War/Penfriend) and guitarist Rat (Ned's Atomic Dustbin) proved to be another good addition to both of the involved parties' back catalogue. A collection of dark odes t
Read more