Album review: The Damned Things, Ironiclast

As metal supergroups go, this one may just be the mummy and daddy of those currently pitching for the hard rock crown. Comprising Anthrax guitarists Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano and Fall Out Boy's Joe Trohman, this is a triple axe attack of serious proportions, with Andy Hurley providing bone-shaking backbeats. The trump card is singer Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die, who has ten times the tonal variation of the usual rock screamer.

In spirit, songs such as Friday Night and We've Got A Situation Here owe as much to the new wave Of British heavy metal as poodle hair and spandex. There is the frenetic melodic energy of Thin Lizzy at their finest on Black Heart and The Great Reckoning, and the snarl of contemporary American punk snapping at its heels.

There are agreeably dark hints of the mighty Ministry in the title track, all impossibly slick time changes and brutal harmonies, throttling the chugging Graverobber beyond an inch of its life. It is all fantasist nonsense of course, but brilliantly executed and convincingly delivered.

Download this: We've Got A Situation Here, A Great Reckoning