There are two types of people in this world: those who like Raging Speedhorn and those who are wrong. Ever since the band reformed in 2014, they have proved themselves to be harder, darker and smarter than the rest, their drunken and skunk-ravaged ambitions reaching a grimy peak with the astonishing, Russ Russell-produced Lost Ritual. However, despite the glorious brutality of that album, Speedhorn (always a volatile entity) have undergone a number of torturous line-up shifts in the last couple of years, with Jim Palmer leaving (and then re-joining) the band, Jamie Thompson departing (to be replaced by Dave Leese) and, in a shock move, John Loughlin leaving the band after 21 years to be replaced by Dan Cook. Not that the entity known as Speedhorn acknowledges any such internal strife. The band simply butted heads, recalled Russ Russell to the fold, and set about tracking the aptly-titled Hard To Kill.
As with Lost Ritual, the Russell-Speedhorn collaboration sounds immense. Russ instinctively knows how to harness the live energy of this most brutal of live acts and, as Snakebite emerges out of a haze of feedback and screaming, you know that Speedhorn have lost none of their berserker power. With Dan Cook and Frank Reagan trading vocal lines and (in a currently taboo manner) gallons of saliva, the energy of the performance is palpable, although it’s also notable that the guitars are even sharper and more focused than on the previous effort. It makes for a hair-raising start, only for the dirty blues groove of Doom Machine to kick everything into a screaming stoner hole that will have you banging your head with glazed eyes and a dazed expression on your face. The closest that Speeedhorn have yet come to Pantera (think Revolution Is My Name), it’s an album highlight, although the defiant Spitfire isn’t far behind in those stakes as Andy Gilmour’s gruelling bass lines threaten to induce a prolapse and the band unleash one of their catchiest tracks since Fuck The Voodoo Man. The first half of the record slams to an end with the title track, an increasingly agitated and nervy beast that will demolish any pit that dares stand before it.
Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Hammer Down is the sound of every murder you’ve ever seen in a grimy exploitation horror, Andy’s creeping bass paving the way for a riff that grinds its way into your very skull. In contrast the dirty groove of Hand Of God is made for the stage, the stuttering, palm-muted riff providing the perfect backdrop for the increasingly coruscating vocals. Brutality, frankly, has a hard act to follow, but succeeds thanks to the dynamic thrust of the guitars and the deftly employed bass. In contrast, The beast slows things down to a bloody-kneed crawl, the eviscerating screams deployed over the none-more-doomy opening only serving to make the atmosphere all the more uncomfortable. It leaves only the gloriously incongruous sub-three-minute blast of T Rex’s Children Of The Revolution to see things out, the band dismantling the original with sledgehammer subtlety and bonus cowbell. It’s typical of the Speedhorn to throw a curveball out there as their final offering and yet, for all of its late-night-let’s-track-this-after-a-beer vibe, it’s astonishingly catchy and sees the record out on a high.
Fuck it, Speedhorn can do no wrong and, with Russ Russell manning the desk, their recorded output comes damn close to capturing the visceral impact of their live shows. God knows how many beers were sunk during the making of this album (although it’s easy to imagine band and producer wading through a sea of cans to get to the door), but it works. Hard To Kill is savage fun, blisteringly powerful and made for the stage. We may not know when we’ll be able to return to the latter, but for now, Hard To Kill is everything you need to smash those lockdown blues into pieces. All hail Raging Speedhorn, they fucking rule. 9.5/10
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