Rusted Shut

Rusted Shut

Rusted Shut's Don Walsh is the cockroach that just won't die, a result of the singer/guitarist's "Why not?" approach to rock & roll lifestyles. In that spirit, he returns with the Houston group's second proper long-player in more than two decades of existence, and they're certainly in good hands with Providence, R.I., noise label Load Records, home to a similar brood of feral roustabouts. Rusted Shut's songs depend on volume and repetition, and there's plenty of it running throughout Dead, but there's perhaps a few more – gulp – nuances here. Beyond white noise and blown-out guitar, the black tar drone has softened and recongealed. "Feelin Weakened" flails as Rusted Shut's most controlled outburst to date; when Walsh slurs, "It's a bad vision of the future," the pulsing beat takes over and an ecstatic brain rattle follows. And take gaping maw "Addiction," on which Walsh grunts, "Let anarchy reign." Why not?