Metz

Metz (2012)

Jack Essenberg

There has been a sort-of nostalgia as of late for the underground music of the late '80s-early '90s with more indie rock-oriented bands, such as Yuck, leading the charge. But behind the somewhat glossy exterior of these bands that crib from the works of Dinosaur Jr. and Pavement is a darker underbelly; this where Metz come in. Metz are a three-piece post-hardcore band from Toronto who've been performing together since 2007. Their debut self-titled album is a pounding ruckus that tastes of sweat and blood; it's like getting stabbed in the eardrum with a screwdriver in the best possible way. This is the type of dissonant noise we want, we crave. This is music that sounds like Jesus Lizard and Drive Like Jehu fucking Mclusky.

The album opens ironically enough with the track "Headache," a thumping track clocking in at under two-and-a-half minutes. In fact, most of the album goes off like a series of flash bangs, intense loud tracks, most clocking in at the two to three minute mark, and that's just the way we like it. Though, I must say the two tracks that do surpass the four-minute marker, "Wasted" and the five-and-a-half-minute blistering closer that is "Negative Space," might be the album's strongest tracks with "Negative Space" being one of my favorite album closers of the year. It's a final track that is so anti-climatic that it leaves you yearning for more, and that seems like that's exactly what Metz wants of us, to want more.