The Tickturds are probably one of my favourite punk bands, and with their debut album Tickturdius Maximus due for release imminently, hopefully more people are about to see why. A mix of ferocious punk beats, angry shouting vocals and some great riffs and basslines, this is something a bit different and interesting.
“Now Hear This You Tickturd” is an audio clip that gave the band their name, from Smokey And The Bandit, and leads us into the first proper track, Comfort Zone which has an awesome main riff and some cool stabbing guitars and drums too. The bassline is nice and “bouncy” with quite a classic punk feel to it. This is a slice of proper punk from the start. The double attack of “Monkey” and “Underdog” has been live hits from the band for some time now, and were featured on their live album “Insulting Your Eardrums.” It’s nice to hear these on a proper album, with their catchy main riffs and interesting basslines.
“C.T.S” is the first track on the album sung by bass player Luke Fisher. This is a punked up ska style track, with upbeat drumming and some great riffs too. We go back to Rik Spanner for “Eyes In The Sky” and this is another straight up punk track with furious vocals and some hard hitting drums.
“Revolution” is a nice dynamic track with some cool changes in rhythm and feel over the course of quite a short track, and with this one you can hear the heavy metal background behind James Balcombe’s drumming. “Player” is a track with some more awesome basslines, and some cool riffs as well. “Jesus Creepers” starts off quite slow but very quickly picks up the pace at the end with a mad tempo and some equally mad vocal delivery.
“My God” is one of my highlights on the album, with some powerful riffs and interesting structure that shows there’s more to this punk band than meets the eye, with a sense of melody and lyrics that some may not expect. “Invasion Liberation” is a speedy track with some bluesy rock riffage and a nice call and response vocal too. This one almost borders on early heavy metal but has an attitude throughout that perfectly suits the Tickturds.
“Nigel” is another track fronted by Luke with song angry interspersions from Rik. This is another highlight of their live set, and is often contrasted by Luke’s acoustic slowed down version opening up many a night. “Serious Loss Of Doubt” is the longest track on the album yet still only just over three minutes. This one has one of my favourite Tickturds basslines that makes use of some cool major triads, and overall one of my favourites with some great playing from the mighty Clive.
It’s good to see “Mr Angry” on this album as well, as this is yet another highlight (yeah, there’s more than a few on this album) with its hard rock main riff, frenetic drumming and a really cool bridge later on. It really suits it title and works really well here.
“Zombie Hen Blues” finishes up the album, with exactly as you’d expect from the title; some blues! This is a cool, well played track and offers something different to finish up the album.
I always feel that production should match what a band is trying to do, and with the Tickturds this has definitely been achieved with Tickturdius Maximus. It’s the best sounding release by the band so far, yet it still has that raw energy that defines the band (and their live shows) and really works in their favour really.
There’s plenty on offer with “Tickturdius Maximus” at a massive 14 tracks in just 31 minutes. Each track though short is done well and offers something a bit different. At its core this is some straight up punk exactly the way it should be, but listen deeper for some different stuff going on, bits of Ska, and even some speed metal perhaps. This is definitely worth checking out if you aren’t afraid.
Tickturdius Maximus is available to order now at https://thetickturds.bandcamp.com/album/tickturdius-maximus
Check out The Tickturds at https://www.facebook.com/TheTickturds
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