From Iceland — Tommygun Preachers

Published July 29, 2008

With a name like a spaghetti Western and songs such as ‘Drifter’ and ‘Hillbilly Purgatory’, you’d imagine the Tommygun Preachers to come across sonically like a posse of unwashed outlaws who found time to make some good ‘ol guitar music in-between jumping freight trains. Instead, the album sits in a musical abyss between country rock and punk but is still enjoyable. ‘The Burning Hell Machine’ is one of the tracks where they come alive with a punk-infused riff and John Lydon-influenced snarling vocal that you’d love to hear at 1am in a sweaty club. Title track ‘Jawbreaker’ and ‘Let’s Go’ follow a similar theme but with a degree more anger and drive coming out in satisfying blasts. The album is sometimes formulaic and the vocals struggle to stand out from the energetic compositions, such as in ‘Incinerate’, but ‘Jawbreaker’ has attitude, venom and some decent songs. It’s just a few killer tracks short of being really good and that’s a shame.