Local Music Reviews
Le Force
Le Fortress
Wäntage USA
It’s finally here, Le Force’s first record label release. The deflowering honor goes to Wäntage USA, out of Missoula, Mon., which also hosts Federation X and The Fucking Champs, among others. Hot tubs filled with whiskey and semen, feathered hot-pink boas and glass fish tanks full of cobras and coke during their world tour supporting The Who and/or Monster Magnet are sure to follow. Le Force put the mojo back into metal. Their mostly-instrumental black iron brew is dripping with the raw, cocky attitude that was so essential to the entire beginning of the movement. Not only is Le Force’s musical execution as tight as a tourniquet, the feverish but deadly controlled guitar solos reek of immediate, real and heart-ripping heat and sweat, and the riffs themselves surge like a mounting tsunami, pounding your helpless psyche with a wall of liquid fire. The production happily leaves the scrapy edges of Le Force’s three-prong assault intact, so it sounds as if they’re playing in your living room, straddling your TV and writhing on your shag rug. I like all the tracks, but “Victory Runs Through Our Blood Like Ice in the Caves of Midnight” has got to be my favorite musically and title-wise. www.le-force.com, www.wantageusa.com