Hard Charger – “Bad Omens” [Album Review]

Imagine you’re walking across an apocalyptic landscape. Your worn leather and hockey equipment are the only things protecting you from roving packs of Canadian motor punk gangs who terrorize the land. You’re low on water, and down on your luck. But lucky for you, you’ve got an old tape cassette player that still works.

I imagine this is the soundtrack to that kind of bleak scenario: some band that managed to keep their guitars running long enough to record vicious motor metal in some tin can out in the wasteland. I guess that’s what this band was going for, because I wrote that before going to their Bandcamp, and was pleasantly surprised to see the artwork for their 7″ from 2013 had the same themes that I just mentioned.

It’s hard not to like the ride these guys take you along on. Stripped down without going so far as to be lo-fi, simple without being formulaic, fast-paced without delving into virtuoso nonsense, this is the kind of motor metal that I could actually see myself playing while barreling through the bleak wastelands of the apocalypse (or just down the A421 in England, as it happens). Bad Omens is a consistent and abrasive release that’s sure to be a shot in the arm of whatever venue is willing to have this wicked three-piece.

It’s the same frantic pacing that channels Motorhead and Judas Priest, with thrash and d-beat influences informing a contemporary approach that I’m happy to see is coming out of New Brunswick. Being personally familiar with how grimly sparse heavy music can be in small-town Canada, I have to take my hat off to a group that’s blowing my hair back without all the support and ample populace that the more cosmopolitan cities in North America could afford a band like this. Be on the lookout for these guys when they go on tour this summer.

Bad Omens Track Listing:

01. Conquer Darkness
02. Ship Wrecked
03. Derelict
04. Dragged To Hell
05. No Chance Parole
06. Brain Suck
07. Fed Up Nihilist Blues
08. Snow Axe
09. Relentless Mindfuckers
10. Fog Riders
11. Slice By Slice
12. Two Day Hangovers

Run Time: 26:25
Release Date: June 20, 2016

Check out the song “Ship Wrecked”