Album: Black Helicopter, Don't Fuck with the Apocalypse (Ecstatic Peace!)

Like The Black Keys and Kings Of Leon, Boston combo Black Helicopter manage to find something fresh and distinctive in the kind of heavy rock music that's the musical equivalent of an army-surplus greatcoat.

It's apt, then, that this album should open with "Invasion Of Prussia", a song about Russian resistance set to ponderous, bass-heavy grunge that's like tank-tracks clogged with frozen mud. Elsewhere, guitarist Tim Shea's songs about social dysfunction and sundry other failings are delivered over a two-pronged guitar barrage that sometimes touches on the fertile discordancy of Live Skull, but which at its best – the deadpan-titled "Copout" – features braided lines that resemble the Allman Brothers by way of Sonic Youth. "Record Player" offers a brief glint of jaunty nostalgia, but even that's haunted by eerie slide guitar.

DOWNLOAD THIS Invasion Of Prussia; Copout; Pickle Jar; Under The Bus