Every time this four piece from Hawkes Bay crosses my path on this site they blow my mind. Latest single K.M.T.L. joins that list of BST tracks to have done this. Where did these guys come from???

This new single has a power and energy to it that raises the bar for this form of music. This is primeval. It’s from the birth of Metal. Dan Fulton and Josh Te Maro (bass and drums respectively) provide a rhythm section that’s thundering, deep, fat and utterly in step with each other. These guys’ delivery is impressive. Add the guitar work of band leader Charlie Wallace – he of the “I’ll just jump off the Sky Tower while shredding out a lead solo for my art” fame – and this is a song, and a band, for the ages.

The guitar work is a combination of some hard out riffing with a blistering lead, culminating in a solo that put me in mind of Mister S. Hudson‘s solo to close G & R’s Paradise City, with the discordant, off-key jazz twists catching the attention nicely. And then we come to the vocals of Baldrick.

At times in the tracks I’ve reviewed I’ve been put in mind of Offspring, of Hetfield, and this latest performance shows us he has the lungs of an elephant. The man sings this one with the octaves, timbre, intensity and snarl of the legendary Ronnie James Dio. Truly an exceptional performance. The track is anthemic, and when these guys hit their audiences with it on their up-coming tours with Filter and…. BRUCE DICKINSON (in Europe, no less), this one is going to be a show stopper. I guarantee you that.

Studio work was part-written in famous Sienna Studios in Nashville, Tennessee and engineered by Nick Raskulinecz in Rock Falcon Studio – also in Nashville – and what a mastery of a mastering by some masters. This is headed straight for high rotation on the Rock, Hauraki, BayRock, RDU, 99bFM, Active, and the list goes on. This video will see airplay on Juice. Filmed on a theatre stage, giving the guys space to perform, we have some neat lighting circling them as they perform as if they were in front of a crowd. The cameras parallax around gleefully, giving an dynamism to the shots and matching the high intensity and energy.

This really is how I love my music. This band is heading to Europe with Bruce Dickinson, where their sound will go down well. They are touring the Aussie and NZ legs of Filter‘s world tour – again giving them much deserved coverage (look out Melbourne Rock City, these guys are a match for you!). Pop onto the band’s website for dates and ticket info, and GO if you can!

I cannot fault this. I’ll be messaging my old mates from back before the Roman Empire when us Gen Xers were in our late teens, and getting them to give these guys a listen. The vid is on the You Tubes, the audio is on Spotify.

Oo f***ing Rah!