Wilson: Right To Rise

Punk metallers gear up for the party spirit

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If 2013’s superb Full Blast Fuckery album took everybody by surprise, then expectations are riding high for this follow-up from grease-stained punk metallers Wilson.

You can’t imagine a band that sounded so nonchalantly badass would be too bothered by the thought of pleasing people, and Right To Rise is imbued with that ‘live for the moment’ rock’n’roll spirit that made Wilson such a dizzying proposition the first time around.

The band don’t, however, hit you immediately with the breakneck pace that they flew out of the traps on last time. In fact, openers Right To Rise and Guilty (You’re Already Dead) almost seem pedestrianly mid-paced compared to previous work. It’s really not until All My Friends that Wilson kick it up a gear, sounding like an orgy between Alice In Chains and Every Time I Die, that you get a sense you’re at a party of sleaze, danger and huge, anthemic metallic rock. First single Hang With The Devil could be Cancer Bats in an AA meeting and The Flood doesn’t know whether to be COC, The Melvins or Black Stone Cherry, so elects to be all three. If you like your rock unrefined you’ll love Wilson. Just don’t expect them to love you back.

Stephen Hill

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.