Gas

Personnel: Rick Feedtime (vocals, guitar); Allen Larkin (vocals); Tom Sturn (drums).
Audio Mixer: Mikey Young.
In the '80s, Australian trio feedtime cut a handful of albums that documented their massive, pummeling sound for the ages, built around snarling slide guitar, rubbery basslines, and unrelenting drumming. You would expect that the passage of time would sap feedtime of their physical impact, but thankfully you would be wrong. In 2017, feedtime are back with a fresh studio album, Gas, and by golly, they still sound like the big, lumbering threat to all that is decent that they were in the 20th century. Gas features the classic feedtime lineup that cut the lion's share of their catalog, and Rick, Al, and Tom (who still don't want to share their last names) still stomp with a leaden tread, unleashing a great, woozy wave of sound from the first cut to the last. While the songs on Gas are a bit less memorable than on feedtime's classic work, this has always been a band you listen to for sound rather than melodies, and as far as the performances are concerned, these guys haven't lost a bit of their touch. Crank it up, and Gas will frighten your neighbors and puzzle most of your friends, and more than three decades after their debut album, that is an accomplishment to be respected. If you've still been wearing out your copies of Suction or Cooper-S, Gas will stand proudly beside them, and though it isn't the ideal introduction to feedtime and their body of work, beginners won't be cheated by checking this out first. ~ Mark Deming