This Vancouver quartet operates like it’s the ’90s and the whole Amphetamine Reptile noise scene was just breaking out. When you write songs as fierce as Words Aren’t Smart and King of Face, songs that bring the best elements of hardcore fury, angular avant-rock and good ol’ fashioned Jesus Lizard psyche freakout all into delicious under-two-minute blasts, it’s a very, very good thing. The band is incredibly tight on record, but it’s safe to guess that live singer Luke Pigeon might be more likely to get lost in his clear goal of maximizing all the aggro there is in the room. Hopefully, this group gets the exposure it deserves as this is one of the best sounding and performed hard albums to come out this year. If you like music that is hard, howling and as subtle as being pushed through a slow, rusty spinning saw blade, this baby the Storc delivered is for you.Stuart DerdeynVancouver Sun

Storc’s self-titled debut is an energetic, tightly woven record. Although described with the single tag “punk” on Bandcamp, the LP is so much more, combining elements of several genres to great effect. It took them long enough (the band formed in 2011), but this release is worth waiting for. That’s hardly a surprise, given that Storc has impressive credentials, featuring members of Thee Manipulators, Vicious Cycles, Nasty On and Christa Min, as well as Vancouver fixture Luke Meat.The band members’ wealth of experience is used to good effect across 12 tracks that jump from punk to sludge to garage to psych and onto still others. At no point do those various styles feel dissonant, though, there is a truly punk-rock thread running throughout and tying them all together into a foot-stomping, gyrating whole.The album’s punk core will please fans of great bands such as Dead Kennedys and SNFU, with Luke Meat’s vocals bearing more than a passing resemblance to both Jello Biafra and Vancouver resident Mr. Chi Pig. Luke veers between tight control and wild abandon, using both to great effect. Although all 12 are solid, the standout track for me comes halfway through the album — ‘One Woman, Two Eyes.’ The intro riff will immediately have you bouncing, and builds tension over half a minute before being joined by thumping drums. Deceptively simple, ‘One Woman, Two Eyes’ builds to enthralling frenzy. Tom Irelandwww.vancityrockers.com