Surfacing after an extensive bath in the uncleaned grease traps that lie in Fredericton hardcore act Deep Fryer is their new EP Rockin’ Right Hard. A product that leaves you with the same feeling of overindulgence as the Dixie Lee chicken on the cover, only with less regret, and you sweat out the calories instead on consuming them.
The album kicks off with the track ‘Jeremy,’ an homage to the ridiculous shade NHL legends Jeremy Roenick and Patrick Roy threw at each other back in the 1995-1996 Stanley Cup playoffs. The memorable quotes that are still repeated today are obliged in a clever mash-up that embodies the lyric content. Instrumentally, the track fires bullets with riffs that cascade from a tougher take on the Foo Fighter’s ‘All My Life’ to a series of spastic outbursts that leave you foaming at the mouth.
Bringing things back to a more familiar matters, whiskey, rye and fuzzy bass intros courtesy of bassist Jake Spencer is ‘Coleman The Frog’. The energy is flying back and forth across the room on this one, setting the aggressively bi-polar tone that only proceeds to elevate and expand its range as you move through the EP.
‘Crack Shack Fever’ is where the Jekyll and Hyde of the band has a winner-take-all cage match. Slow, gloomy pockets swallow you up in the verses while whiplashing chorus’ spit you right back out. Vocalist Mike Erb continues to prove why he is the most insane frontman that Freddy Beach has to offer, shredding his vocals to the point where you anticipate his face to come through your speakers at any moment.
Guitarist JE Sheehy smoothly throws in cheeky notes of southern rock and clever change-up licks that pleasantly throw off the ear and grant a deeper appreciation for when the music swings back to being heavy. This is no more apparent than in the final track ‘Kings of King’s College’, when the band’s most unhinged performance is counter-balanced with a tremendous up-swinging climb that would rile up the nostalgia of any Black Sabbath fan.
This album sets a new standard in controlled chaos and offers something for broader audiences in between the madness. It is a second solid offering from the band in the last calendar year and yet another great release for local record label Ancient Temple Recordings. Both should be feeling good about what they’ve accomplished and where they stand to end off the year.