Admit it. From the album artwork and the font style alone, you’re probably expecting some kind of death metal or similarly edgy dark guitar orientated music right? I mean, any album cover with a skull still brandishing a head of hair, set against a entagled, near illegible font, gives a morose impression of the music to come, yes? Actually, not even close. While the imagery is somewhat misleading, what you’re actually getting is the mastermind of Swedish one man, self-confessed ‘stoner punk’ outfit John Strömshed a.k.a. Lightsabres. This is in essence is punk rock done correctly, at its absolute rawest, most low fidelity, recorded in a garage best. You couldn’t get a purer listening experience if you tried. It encapsulates everything about the original outbreak in the 70’s, the attitude, the killer guitar playing, the fuck-you vocals… Just with one man instead of four of them, and distributed in bite-size chunks that leave you craving for so much more. Spitting Blood may not be ground-breaking, but everything you could ever want from punk you can find right here and there is true excellence in this underground gem.
As luck would have it, tracks from his new album Beheaded went live on this day, it’s sounding slower and murkier, but still nice to listen to. The full album is now out, so yeah, that in addition to Spitting Blood and first album Demons are all up on his Bandcamp, in either digital or vinyl format. The vinyl supply is limited so hurry. Additional merch is also available via his webstore.
The Soundshark 