AUTOBAHN - Ecstasy of Ruin

The N.W.R.A! Something like half a decade since we last heard from them, AUTOBAHN power back into view with what is their third album, a self-recorded/-produced/-mixed DIY affair projected from the confines of their own studio bunker. The time away begets a few changes, most notably the replacement of their drummer with a handful of machines (not a bad metaphor for 2023 actually) and a refined triangulation of Northern influence: Hull's COUM Transmissions, Sheffield Steel City and their own gothic Leeds. These four fellas have always displayed a penchant for the dark, but on Ecstasy of Ruin they've pointedly honed their Dance Macabre to a particularly sharp end, now more determinedly Wax Trax with a Yorkshire accent. The drum programming hits with a metallic ferocity, guitars are set firmly to overdrive (something they've always been very good at btw), and singer Craig Johnson routinely sounds especially aggrieved. And why shouldn't he! This is a record clearly written as a survey of post-Brexit mess, a skewering of that stupidity and a re-direction of the anger it elicited. Think of it as soundtrack to a second Threads, after-the-end music, only this time the events are a little less rooted in fiction. The opening track is titled 'Post-History'. It's not for nothing. It's gonna be a thrill to witness them bring this to London on the day of the coronation horror show. Burn it all the ground, boys.