METZ
Atlas Vending
Release Date: Oct 9, 2020
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Sub Pop
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Atlas Vending from Amazon
Album Review: Atlas Vending by METZ
Great, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
METZ have long been capable of invoking a real sense of ferocity. It's on their fourth full-length 'Atlas Vending', however, that the Toronto trio seem to have channelled down into a new kind of blistering rage. From the stabbing guitars of opener 'Pulse' to the propulsive drums of 'Blind Youth Industrial Park', the record still pushes hard against the boundaries of noisiness, but this time it feels even more fraught, more dystopian; much like the outside world.
Based on rating 8/10
Canadian noise trio METZ emerged from Steve Albini’s pressure cooker approach on 2017’s Strange Peace with every bit of Sturm und Drang intact. Self-producing this time out with an assist from Ben Greenberg (Algiers), vocalist/guitarist Alex Edkins’s voice is higher up in the mix on Atlas Vending and the sound returns to more of the intra-song dynamism of 2015’s sophomore album, II. The opening track “Pulse” builds from a low drone and slathers on layers of aural assaults as it goes.
Based on rating 8/10
Hell still hath no fury like the band METZ. The Toronto noise rockers are functioning like a well-oiled and lethally dangerous machine on their fourth album, Atlas Vending. Hayden Menzies hits the drums like he's trying to break them — or, if he can't break them, then beat them into the ground.
Based on rating 7/10
Announcing themselves, on record at least, with 2012's self-titled release, the Toronto trio have over the years created a very particular framework. Garnering attention due to their blistering style of punk, leading to plentiful comparisons with Nirvana and The Jesus Lizard , progress was that of refinement rather than reinvention. Their trademark shower of steely guitars, punching drums and pulsing basslines, if incrementally honed, was never up for total review.
Opinion: Excellent
The relationship between live and recorded music and their interconnectedness in the mind of the listener has always been a personal source of fascination. A powerful and involving live experience has the capacity to imbue recordings by that artist with a renewed sense of excitement. That this should be so is unsurprising of course, given the way our minds work by process of association.
'Atlas Vending'
is available now