Great bunch of lads Arms & The Man (who sadly broke up back in February) prove that there’s still a shred of life left in their twitching corpse before falling silent. K West vs. T Rex is about a posturing, ageing, roaring prehistoric scavenger and a carnivorous dinosaur from the Cretaceous era. It’s also their swansong, clocking in at just under three minutes, the fabulously facial-haired five piece are still raw, raucous and debauched (as you’d expect).
In this barnstormer, the band are seen carrying vocalist Ben Davies around a load of old garages and alleyways (stopping at several points for breathers) before depositing said vocalist in the studio and promptly losing it in the song’s ragged and disjointed breakdown. This might be one of the most punk rock tracks they’ve realised – for the most part, it roars along under that shredding groove, Davies’ vocals are a brusque, (and always amusing – “…all this bullshit we endure, it’s nothing 50,000 pounds of C4 wouldn’t cure…“) full of rapid-fire delivery, employing some strong backing vocal chants and a crunching, twisted metallic coda that feels like some kind of spiritual nod to the end of Every Time I Die‘s Floater. Anyway, it’s fan-fucking-tastic and it’s made me both happy (new Arms & The Man songs is always a good thing) and sad (because, you know, they’ve split and that).
Stick this in your ears and eyes immediately.
I eagerly await the reunion gig in 2025.
You can purchase nearly all of Arms & The Man’s musical output (at least, everything they committed to tape) from their bandcamp. Treat yourself, yeah?
Links
Arms And The Man
Arms And The Facebook
Arms And The Bandcamp
Lizard Hips
Junior Vice President of Keep It Fast. In other news: I work in social media, talk about dinosaurs, run a book club and have amazing facial hair. I am also a male man who is still not dead.
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