The Gospel Truth

Noise, as made by Gospel Truth on third album Jealous Fires, hearkens the discordant clash of Gang of Four in Patrick Travis' guitar figures, Devo's herky-jerk in the David Petro/Brandon Crowe rhythm section, and the snarling darkness of Australian gloom-mongers the Birthday Party in overall atmosphere. To accuse the locals of ripping any of that off would seem heretical given that even calling it "post-punk" proves far too limiting. Instead the Truth, as topped off by cool-as-ice singer Mark Tonucci, fuses together like-minded broken shards into nightmare scenarios disguised as pop songs, juicing the works with enough caffeine to cripple Henry Rollins. "No" and the title track attack fierce as stalking tigers; "Hunger Artist" and "You Don't Want Us" burn like boiling oil. A faithful cover of the Scientists' savage "Set It on Fire" (apparently a righteous contractual obligation for local imprint 12XU) comes off as light relief on Jealous Fires. Few bands make atonality as treasured as the Gospel Truth.