Third studio album and third breakthrough. Their passion for noise has not changed. Still committed and angry, the three comrades sign Atlas Vending with a quill that’s still very sharp. Their decibels as intense as ever, Metz puts Toronto back on the noise-rock map. With an album almost every two years since 2012, the reputation of the band is well established. Carried by the single “Blind Youth Industrial Park”, the trio plunges us back into absolute darkness. This musical onslaught is thought-provoking and tackles subjects such as social anxiety, dependency, paranoia, isolation, and above all the desire to fuck everything up. Doesn’t it remind you of something? Exactly what we’re experiencing right now, the year 2020. Atlas Vending was neither written nor inspired by this turmoil, but it reflects it in every way.
The drums hammer the eardrums hard and the guitars make our teeth rattle a little bit more. Anxiety is at its peak on “The Mirror”. The shrill yelps of the strings add to the pressure, the steamroller is just getting started. It’s banging our heads against the walls, when will our nightmare come to an end? “Hail Taxi” just drives the nail deeper into our skulls. “I’m sending messages… it never looked that way before”, a sort of cry for help, falling on deaf ears. Nevertheless, a positive thought and a life lesson emerges from the closing track, “A Boat To Drown In”, namely: “And if you see headlights, man. you better run for cover… I need to leave this place now more than ever!” A resonant societal metaphor perfectly in tune with the times.
