And now, let us pause to sing the praises of epic, loud music. Or epically loud music. Personally, I prefer both.

Tyranny Is Tyranny The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Phratry)

Tyranny Is Tyranny plays long songs (four of the five pieces here clock in at more than seven minutes) and from the first note the band's ambition shines through. After a while, it sounds like listening to an album of Iron Maiden epics.

Which, for me, is a very good thing. Tyranny Is Tyranny sits squarely in the middle of prog-touched sludge punk, which isn't as far from the prog-ish sludge blues of the Paul Dianno-era Maiden as you might think. These boys have a more orchestral feel to their arrangements, even as the sound is hacked away to crudeness as often as not.

I think there's a message in the lyrics (I mean, there has to be, given the album and song titles), but I think the music advances the band's ideas much better. This is the sound of collapse; structures rise and fall, but entropy rules.

If this is the way the world ends, pour me a beer or two and pull up a chair. The show is awesome.

Jon Worley