Pay attention, dear Post readers, you’re looking at the best punk band performing today.
Hailing from the thriving Toronto music scene – by way of Ottawa – vocalist-guitarist Alex Edkins, bassist Chris Slorach and drummer Hayden Menzies are METZ, a raucous three-piece with a penchant for loud noises. Very loud noises.
Perhaps the most punk thing about this Canadian buzz-band is that they don’t really sound archetypically punk at all. Rewriting the DIY rulebook with a vicious new cocktail that blends the tropes of Sex Pistols punk with Public Image Ltd post-punk, their unique sound is thrown together with a bit of alternative rock – a la Pixies – and the grungy sounds of Pearl Jam, and topped off with a dash of garage rock, noise, sludge metal, surf and hardcore. Wearing their influences right on their dirty sleeves, they still manage to sound remarkably fresh and current. They are three angry young men speaking for a generation left duped by the global financial crisis, who find solace in forcing audiences to dance like loons.
Formed way back in 2007, the band built up a steady local following with notorious live shows and some rough and ready demo EPs. Crafting their niche, they eventually sent a demo out to their favourite record label, the legendary Seattle-based outfit Sub Pop. The label bigwigs were left stunned, excited and afraid by what they heard, and decided to release the band’s eponymous debut LP back in October last year. Thirty minutes of breathless, boisterous noise-punk, it swept the board garnering great critic appraisal and universal acclaim, bagging a spot on Pitchfork’s Top 50 Albums of 2012 list, and producing radio hits with the appropriately titled tracks ‘Headache’ and ‘Wasted’.
Despite their prodigious influences, the band METZ most peculiarly resemble is another Sub Pop-signed three-piece, the grunge demigods Nirvana. Like Cobain & Co’s first album Bleach, METZ’s debut sounds like a bunch of friends in a room together, turning their amps to 11 and throwing their guitars, drums and each other at a wall − all in the name of fun. A first listen can initially be a jarring experience, but you’re very quickly won over by the tenacity of the performance: from Edkin’s ferocious screams and crunchy riffs, Slorach’s pummelling bass lines, and the Keith Moon-style punishment Menzies bestows onto his drum kit.
These songs, and this band, were born to be appreciated live. Lucky for us, METZ roll onto Scandinavian shores this Monday, providing us with a post-weekend wake-up call at their first ever Copenhagen show. Held at Vesterbro’s Lille Vega, if it’s anything like the other shows on their tour, expect album hits, new treats, sweaty dancing, alcohol swirling and the occasional bit of affable audience banter.
Asked in a recent interview what sort of music METZ play, heavyweight drummer Menzies proclaimed “it’s the sort of music parents will hate.” Whilst it’s probably best you leave your mum and dad at home, be sure you don’t forget your earplugs.
METZ
Ideal Bar, Enghavevej 40, Cph V;
Mon 20:00;
Tickets: 120kr,
