SPiT LiKE THiS – Normalityville Horror

Shane | 12 September 2012 | Reply

Dark Lord Records, May 2012
By Shane Pinnegar
9/10

You’ve had those days when you want to walk away from your jobs, turn your back on all the idiots harping and making demands upon you, get into a souped up supercharged chrome n’ black pirate flag-sporting hot rod of doom and put the pedal to the metal as you roar down the highway to hell… and now you have the ultimate soundtrack to accompany the ride!

SPiT LiKE THiS’s second album was recorded last year with Grammy winning producer Chris Tsangarides, and has stayed under wraps for what seems like forever, while Tsangarides put his own record label – Dark Lord Records – together.

From the initial staccato burst of drum fire, these ten tracks sound huge – SPiT LiKE THiS have never sounded better, from Vile Gilez’s punk-Bonham drums, Vikki Spit’s insurgently driving bass lines to Rob Riot’s chainsaw guitars slicing through the air.

Where in the past STL have sounded like Lord Zion’s pet project, on “Normalityville Horror” all the pieces gel and Tsangarides has captured the charismatic frontman perfectly within the sound of a great band firing on all cylinders.

There’s not a filler in sight as SLT fire off an opening salvo with the punky Sick, tirade against the mainstream on the title track, and roar down that highway in a Mad Max-styled charger through Zero To Sixty.

Very Very Good At Being Bad sees Zion doing what he does best, poking fun and having the time of his life, before Dragged Kicking & Screaming once again rails against the norm.

Whilst not a concept album per se, the theme of being a wilful outsider and refusing to conform runs strong throughout the album, and Zion’s continual positive reinforcement of the counter culture with his clever and insightful lyrics ensure proceedings never flag for a moment.

Teen Angel leads into the glampunk folk storytelling of The Life & Times Of The Suicide Kid, before the barbed wire rock of Oh No! Here We Go! Just when you think they can’t possibly sustain these enormous energy levels, The Dumb Song kicks out seven kinds of jams, before the spitting vitriol of Dead To Me Now closes the album on another high note.

“Normalityville Horror” takes all the elements which up til this point had made SPiT LiKE THiS entertaining and fun, puts them in the hands of one of the finest producers to ever walk the earth, and delivers the sound of a group of musos who have found their feet and become greater than the sum of their parts. This album deserves to be the breakthrough which cross SLT over to radio and – God forbid – the charts. How ironic would that be!

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