Behold! Like Godzilla, Guitar Wolf have risen again. And like the massive killer lizard, the Japanese garage-punk power trio are a fearsome beast that cannot be tamed, contained, pacified or reasoned with. The leather-jacketed noisemakers’ 13th album LOVE&JETT — released on Jack White’s Third Man Records — storms out of the gate and thrashes wildly and feverishly for the duration of this 10-track freakout. Frontman and sole original member Seiji viciously attacks his guitar, slashing at the strings like a maniacal cross between Link Wray, Johnny Ramone and a chainsaw. It’s the same level of frenzy and fervour he channels to wail and bellow the barely intelligible lyrics to ESL songs like Sex Jaguar, Sci-Fi Brat, Fireball Red Legend, Girl Boss of Paris and Bowling in Takada-No-Baba (their cover of the Spencer Davis classic Gimme Some Lovin’ is the rare song where you actually know what he’s screaming about). Not to be outdone, longstanding Drum Wolf Toru and new Bass Wolf Gotz amateurishly thrum and thump away with all their might, desperately trying (and sometimes failing) to keep up with Seiji’s relentless, unstoppable tsunami of sound, fury and raw energy. After more than three decades, they still sound just as awesomely awful as they always have. And with any luck, they always will.
