Album Reviews

And you thought these guys already sounded raw on their eponymous debut? Ha! Wait until you get a load of “II”. It’s as if Metz took a closer look at the songs off of their last full-length, dissected them and got rid of everything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.

That’s why opening track “Acetate” messes you up in the best way possible, something that I didn’t even know was possible until I heard the song. Think of Nirvana at their dirtiest covering Black Flag. I’m not sure which bug crawled up singer-guitarist Alex Edkins’ ass, but the dude sounds like he’s battling a fair amount of demons and is in serious need of a hug.

The rest of the tracks on here follow a similar route and turn you inside out without bothering to clean up the mess. “I.O.U.”, “Nervous System” and “Eyes Peeled” all feel like open wounds that you poke around in…  you know it’s gonna hurt, but you can’t help yourself.