Turbowolf – “Two Hands”

Two Hands is the powerful follow up to Turbowolf‘s self titled debut.

The Bristol four piece have put their foot firmly to the pedal on this one, it’s eleven tracks predominantly a rollicking riffladen rampage. Drawing from a volatile mix of psych rock, punk and metal, the juggernaut only relents briefly, finding space for a quirky instrumental and a spaced out acoustic singalong.

‘Invisible Hand‘ gets underway with a misleadingly delicate introduction as a lonesome guitar tinkers away. Then comes the explosion of trademark fuzzed up beef as vocalist Chris Geordiadis proudly proclaims “Now we’ll bite the hand that feeds us”.

The onslaught is now upon us with lead single ‘Rabbit’s Foot‘ all over us like a rash, drawing us headlong into the sonic maelstrom. The opening one-two punch is over in a flurry as we now digest the disturbing samples of childish chanting on ‘Solid Gold‘. The sampling adds a slightly evil flavour which is curiously contradicted later by the almost cheesy female backing vocals. An intriguing beast indeed.

As fun as the barrage is, the interlude of the brief but wonderfully strange ‘Toy Memaha‘ is welcome. So too the nonchalent acoustic strum of ‘Mk Ultra‘, which sounds like it was recorded in the bowels of a cave and emerges as a suprise album highlight.

Showing off a different side to the band, it becomes apparent that they could be equally at home with trippy acoustic singalongs as they are dishing out the meat. Up until the last section of Two Hands everything delivered has been brief in duration with the majority of tracks clocking in at a maximum of three minutes. But as the conclusion approaches some epics are unveiled. ‘Twelve Houses’, ‘Rich Gift’ and ‘Pale Horse‘ see the psychadelic side take centre stage, each track featuring their own ebbs and flows that take us on a meandering journey. It makes for an impresive ending to the album.

Turbowolf is certainly an apt name for this band as the imagery it conjures up is alligned with their sound. It sums up the raw energy and intensity with which they go about their business. Two Hands sees them in full flight, prowling with menace and leaving behind an impressive trail of destruction.

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Gavin Stocker

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Outside of Across The Ocean Gavin Stocker writes, records and performs music under the moniker of P Truck.

He can also be found clinging to his youth on a skateboard or wandering aimlessly through the bush.