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“SOUND AND FURY” Sound and Fury (Rebel Youth) ***** +
This is one of the nastiest, greasiest, most excellent rock & roll records I’ve heard in years, certainly one of the best of this decade.

The brainchild of front man Luke Metcalf, S & F is old school metal, something akin to AC/DC or Rhino Bucket meets Iggy & The Stooges- a more recent comparison might be the first Jet album. Loaded with snotty attitude and groove, it’s hard to believe this is their first album.

Metcalf was kicked out of three high schools before being thrown out of his own house, managing to drift from T.O. down to California and even Arizona, living in a car with a buddy and his buddy’s dad- essentially living on the street. Not many of us can even imagine what that would be like, but Luke has taken the raw nerve, adrenaline and desperation of that existence and channeled into these songs.

Metcalf eventually found his way back to Toronto, where he got down to business with his old drum set, a bass guitar, rhythm guitar, and an old Fostex reel-to-reel 8-track a buddy had lent him. “It’s no exaggeration that I spent a solid year in the basement, at least ten hours a day every day, writing songs and recording the tracks, playing all the instruments.” At the end of that year, he’d finished rough demos for 45 songs.

Unable to play the guitar solos him self Metcalf called on Griffin do the leads. Liking what the guitarist was able to do, he suggested they put a band together. Rounded out by rhythm guitarist Daz (Metcalf is the singer), bassist John kerns (ex- Age of Electric) and drummer Chris Avalos, Sound And Fury were born. “Our music is ferocious and dirty and nasty and wild!” says the singer. “I wanna party with the kids who live for rock & roll- no bulls**t, down ‘n dirty, ferocious rock & roll. People who really sincerely live for the music and don’t give a s**t about anything else.”

In a just universe, “Sound And Fury” would be THE rock soundtrack of the summer.

KEY CUTS: “High School Hot Box”, “Can’t Get Enough”, “School’s Out”, “Supercharged”