Ever had one of those days where you’d gladly rip your own head clean off your shoulders? You could always just let Hot Load do the job for you. Their last LP - 2025’s ‘Fate Unknown’ - saw the LA five-piece reaching out from behind their wall of hardcore-soaked noise to find a wider range of influences, and that looks set to continue with this wild’n’wonderful follow-up. Sure, they still sound like they’ve exchanged firm handshakes with Discharge. Sunk a few strong ones with Motorhead. Stripped naked and tried to figure out how sword dancing works while juggling Molotov cocktails with Poison Idea. The immediate impact of their noise suggests all of that. But they’re looking further afield into broader sounds of punk and beyond, and this resulting collection of ear-bleeding adrenaline is the kind of glass-gargling thrill you’ve been waiting for all year. Whether you’re drawn to the gloriously familiar chugga-chugga guitars of ‘Hot Night’, the molten D-beat blast of ‘Salvo’, or simply the all-out rock’n’roll attack of nerve-shredding opener ‘Petroleum Express’, this record is guaranteed to do one thing. It WILL leave you reduced to a gibbering wreck; melted brains dripping from your ears as you fail to resist the urge to pogo and bellow along with its addictive refrains. By the time the title track rolls around, with a series of fuzzed-out solos sending your fists aloft amid the up-to-11 chaos, you’ll either be asking where this band has been all your life, or fervently scanning their tour schedules to ponder whether you can sell all your belongings and follow them around forever. We’ll be joining you, of course - this record rips from start to finish, so you may as well let it rip your skull from your spine (hey, this is where we came in!). This is a fully-realised keeper, alright.
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