Texas Platters

Mammoth Grinder

Changing metallic speeds with precision, from a Birmingham lumber to a lightning ride, Austin's Mammoth Grinder battens down an exacting bellow. Snaking under the local trio's rhythm pummel, guitarist Chris Ulsh's moto-metal drag-stripping – classic and modern in the same fluid downstroke of Brian Boeckman's demon-fast drum rolls and the splattered basslines of Chris Camp – proves the titanium spine of this thrashing beast. The exhaling flail of starter pistol-whipping "Two More Classes Until Blackout Weekend" segues directly into the expulsive furor of "Iron Pigs" ("You've got the bite of a lion, but no fucking pride"). "Voice of Rage and Ruin" also shifts smoothly in tone and speed with Hummer gravitas. Side two of this marble-colored vinyl, which also comes in crimson-drenched cassette, dominates with the no-quarter charge of epic "Dead Rednecks," sandwiching theological quandary "God Is Stuck in a Black Hole" with the closing doom glower of "Curse Breeder." Rage and mofo Ruin.