Remember those bad kids at the end of your street that your mum warned you about? Well, it turns out they’ve formed a band and released the most fun punk record of the year. OK, it’s actually a compilation of material from 2011-2015, but why should that matter? Slurring and chanting through 12 songs in 28 minutes, The Worst Four Years is a boisterous yet joyous album, trapped somewhere between Turbonegro and Fucked Up. There’s a rock’n’roll swagger that permeates throughout, something that only comes from genuine cockiness and a blasé attitude to art, and when your songs include Fucking Is Awesome, a Pulitzer prize probably isn’t on your mind. There’s something wonderfully unhinged about the Oslo misfits, like it could all fall apart at any second, but the songs are short enough that the Sellotape manages to hold on. You can almost hear the dirt under their fingernails sliding down the strings, while vocalist Lars Dehli leads rowdy singalongs in the vein of LA skatepunks FIDLAR. Snotty, raw and pissed off, this deserves to be played loud and often – just wait until your parents go out, yeah?
The Good The Bad And The Zugly - The Worst Four Years album review
Nordic punk ruffians sum up their swagger
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Luke Morton joined Metal Hammer as Online Editor in 2014, having previously worked as News Editor at popular (but now sadly defunct) alternative lifestyle magazine, Front. As well as helming the Metal Hammer website for the four years that followed, Luke also helped relaunch the Metal Hammer podcast in early 2018, producing, scripting and presenting the relaunched show during its early days. He also wrote regular features for the magazine, including a 2018 cover feature for his very favourite band in the world, Slipknot, discussing their turbulent 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone.
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