New Zealand's Salad Boys are back with This Is Glue, the follow up to their critically acclaimed 2015 debut album Metalmania. Recorded once again by bandleader/guitarist Joe Sampson at his home studio, This Is Glue's twelve songs dig deeper, with sharper hooks embedded deep within a more mature musicality. This Is Glue hones Sampson's songwriting chops to a razor edge, with many of the album's songs sounding utterly timeless. The riffs and melodies seem all too familiar, perhaps recalling greats that came before them (The Chills, R.E.M., The Bats), but Sampson has a voice all his own. The themes are darker, the lyrics more claustrophobic and yearning; confronting anxiety, mortality, and fear through an abstract lyrical lens. Album opener Blown Up kickstarts with motorik drumming that crescendos into a thrilling guitar riff that could crack mountains. Psych Slasher crashes forward frenetically awash in phaser before easing into a melodic denouem ent buoyed by a bubbling synthesizer before a tidal wave of guitar crashes down again.
