Valient Thorr

There’s really no reason to sugarcoat things here: Valient Thorr kicks ass far beyond the dreams of any of those psychedelic-stoner-garage-riff-‘n’-rollers who make careers out of copying Sabbath or Iggy Pop and get drooled on by forgiving fans. OK, so Valient Thorr talks about being from Venus. This would be lame or merely amusing, except that the music really does sound like it might have been made by interplanetary visitors who have come to rock us silly with original, chunky riffs that give off the energy of an exploding cloud of ammonia. Let Thorr teach a lesson to all bands that might aspire to follow suit: Just because you say “rock and roll!” in your stage raps does not mean you can get away with playing tired riffs over and over.