There are bands who sound like they learned rock’n’roll from a record collection, and then there are The Lords Of Altamont, who sound like they found it half-buried in the dirt, wiped the blood off it and plugged it straight into a broken amp. “Forever Loaded” doesn’t so much begin as stagger out of the speakers in a cloud of grime, bad intent and glorious noise. It is filthy, wired wrong and thoroughly alive.
That has always been the appeal of this lot, really. Their name carries menace before you even hear a note, and the music backs it up with something that feels born of garage rock, psych, punk, blues and the sort of sleaze that leaves a mark on the furniture. “Got A Hold On Me” might begin with the blues, but this is blues stripped of anything tasteful and left instead with grit under its nails. “What’s Your Bag” follows with pure swagger, the kind that suggests the band know exactly how dangerous a groove can feel when it is played with enough snarl.
By the time “Devil Rides” kicks in, the whole record has found its stride. There is something about these songs that makes them feel mythic, like they could all be covers of forgotten cult classics from some dive bar jukebox in another life. But that is really just a sign of how deeply The Lords Of Altamont understand the roots of this music. On “Rusty Guns”, “got a handful of shells and a rusted gun” is a hell of an opening line, and the guitar work that follows is properly trippy, all bad colours and smoke-stained corners.
The middle of the album is where it really starts to get under your skin. “Procession For A Gorehound” thrives on sheer insistence, while “Get Out Of My Head” builds itself out of layer upon layer of guitar, riff on top of riff, with something unsettling shimmering beneath the whole thing. “Got You On The Run” sounds like salvation might just be arriving inside all this racket, albeit salvation with a switchblade tucked in its boot.
Then “Disconnection” boils rock’n’roll down to its nastiest core. “I’m lying next to you but I can’t an infection,” Jake Cavaliere sings, giving the whole thing an even grimier, more diseased feel. After that, “I Got Your Number” is all lip curl and strut, a song full of attitude and threat, before “Twisted Black” closes the record in a full-on psych freakout, as though the whole thing has finally slipped its leash and decided to head straight into the abyss.
The Lords Of Altamont have been doing this too long to care about polish, and thank God for that. “Forever Loaded” is raw, primitive and deeply committed to the idea that rock’n’roll should still sound a little bit dangerous.
RATING: 8/10
