Destructors 666: Quisnam Vigilo Vigilo

Trying their damnedest to stay under the radar, Peterborough punks, Destructors 666 (who keep flipping and flopping back from their original moniker, “The Destructors”) are doin’ it quick and dirty with Quisnam Viglio Viglio. An eight-song EP that cycles through in less time than a sitcom sans commercials, the album takes a critical view of television as an insidious media tool. Prolific in their approach, the band releases a new split disc or album every three months or so. It’s one thing to kick out four new albums every year, but to do it and do it well is another. The Destructors’ particular brand of punk serves up angry, socially conscious punk, hearkening back to a more old school, British punk style.

The two-front guitar attack waged by Dave Colton and Steve Rolls elevates the sound on Quisnam Viglio Viglio from standardized three-chord punk, giving it a fuller sound that gets creative with melodic, chugging riffs and metal-influenced solos on each of the disc’s concise tracks. Straight-forward punk treatises like “Rules and Regulations” and “Control Me” take a whiz on societal conventions with lead singer Allen Adams’ cockney sneer hoisting a verbal middle finger. While still thoroughly punk with his wails, there’s a touch of Lemmy lurking in his metal-tinged yowls and gravel-throated intonations. By the disc’s conclusion — the ska-flavored “Identity” — the Destructors raise the bar on new school punk, blaring out that the genre is not, in fact, dead nor completely buried beneath the veneer of “radio punk”, barking out their message loud and clear.