Fat Axl

A UK quartet fronted by fire- and venom-spitting vocalist Lesley Rankine, Silverfish made a grinding racket that fit neatly alongside the work of bands like Unsane and their countrymen in Fudge Tunnel, but they eschewed fashionable nihilism in favor of feminist fury. After a pair of EPs, they released this, their debut album, in 1991. Guitarist Andrew “Fuzz” Duprey has a compelling style that’s more about raw noise than conventional riffs, but he can still bust out a solo full of fascinatingly bent and warped notes, occasionally paying tribute to funk and even hip-hop. Bassist Chris Mowforth and drummer Stuart Watson are a tight rhythm team, the bass a gloriously distorted rumble recalling David Michael Riley’s work with Big Black and the drums a massive thwack. The eight original songs range from hardcore punk blasts (“Two Marines”) to funk-metal (“Harry Butcher”), with a revelatory and utterly unironic cover of Grandmaster Melle Mel’s “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” bringing the first side to an explosive close.