Blue

This heavy metal quartet makes thunder from a different sky: Their avant-grunge might be unfashionable in the post-Beck era of ironic sampling, but that doesn’t take away from its power. ”Eucalyptus” is a sonically demented track, while guitarist Duane Denison’s AC/DC-meets- Killing Joke riff-orama makes for truly inspired deconstructionist boogie. Blue remains loud, rude, and distorted, yet swinging with explosive musical interplay — everything great rock’s supposed to be. B+