Headlock

It Found Me (Pavement)
by Scott Hefflon

They seemed to come from out of nowhere and they rocked like the dickens, so a little research was in order. Then it clicked; Adam Tranquilli (quite an inappropriate name for such a loud guy) used to be in Bloodfeast back in the ’80s. I’d heard they’d reformed under the name Last Remains, but they never got too far due to internal troubles. Now they’ve solidified into a bad-ass band called Headlock and our story begins with a new paragraph.

After numerous singers (ending in a “We Hate Singers” T-shirt campaign) they decided to do it as a threesome. They fill the gaps plenty-fine and create some serious mayhem, as ex-thrash veterans should. The drums, courtesy of Adam Kieffer, implement every trick in the book to kick out a non-stop barrage of bashing, banging and breaking. Bassist Bob McLynn has his hands full whenever the guitar rips into one of many searing solos, but he holds the thundering rhythms tight and steady. Vocalist/guitarist Adam Tranquilli wades through the chunky stomp guitar and screams with fills, solos, and feedback noise like the old days. His vocal approach has definitely been updated. At times, shouting and mean, and at other times letting loose the throaty screams that make parents consider taking their darlings to “professionals.” While the topics are the usual suicide, anti-government, insanity routines, they pull it off with such energy that they could be singing about picking flowers and they’d still get a pit goin’ wild.