Petrol Girls is an interesting name: their energy on this record asks whether they are fuel poured onto a fire, or the heart of the flame. But this isn’t an album of questions. For all the fuzzy distortion and vocal crackling, ‘Baby’ is about clarity and force. The group is equipped with points to be made, instruments to help hurtle the messages, and a lead singer with incalculable stamina. The London-formed, Austrian-based four-piece envelop a pointed voice in thunderous clouds of guitar and drums. At times, it feels like an internal battle against one another; when they align, the two components rise up together.
22/30
A favourite: ‘Violent By Design’
‘Baby’ is out now via Hassle Records.
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