How To Make Friends And Influence People

by Leslie MathewTerrorvision's second album gathers all of the band's junk punk, mock rock, and cartoon metal leanings into a ferocious, focused package designed to get entire stadiums moshing instantaneously. On How to Make Friends and Influence People, Bradford's finest rock like there's no tomorrow, tossing mega riffs over their shoulders like so much confetti. Their metal aggro has often served to cloak Terrorvision's yen for brilliant, cutting lyrics, but here, sharp as their hooks are, their songwriting is keener -- full of a broad, Swiftian satire that rips into targets both soft and otherwise: from '70s obsessives ("Discotheque Wreck") to squatter hippies ("Oblivion") to notions of progress ("Stop the Bus"), among others. Musically, Friends is fun with the lid off as the band moves from whisper-quiet intros to full-tilt mayhem at the drop of a hat. "Stab in the Back" starts off sounding like the Happy Mondays or Jamiroquai before exploding with slashing guitars. And the hit single "Alice What's the Matter" alternates broody suspense and breakneck riffage to great effect. Terrorvision's smash-and-bludgeon aesthetic will no doubt endear them to metalheads even as their sad-dark visions of post-adolescent anomie find them an audience among those who prefer their rock not so dumb. How to Make Friends and Influence People, indeed.