Spoiler alert: if Fangclub's debut album doesn't stake its claim as one of the best hard rock albums of 2017, then we'll listen to Ed Sheeran's Galway Girl – on a loop – for the next five months.
It is fitting that the North County Dublin band is on a record label that once hosted the likes of Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy. Like their best known forbears, Fangclub has a knack for interweaving granite riffs and melody lines so expertly that it's difficult to avoid being snared by songs as invulnerable as Bad Words, Bullet Head, Dreamcatcher, Psycho and Best Fake Friends.
The directness of the band’s songwriting effortlessly catches the attention and, aligned with the brevity of the tunes, produces a heady result not heard since the glory days of Nirvana. Yeah, seriously – that good.
