There are a lot of bands out there that sound like nothing more than the sum of their influences, without adding anything particularly interesting to the mix. But then there is a rare breed of band whose influences are obvious, yet at the same time, manages to produce something compelling in its own right.
Volts, a three-piece hailing from Chemnitz, Germany, definitely fall into the second category. Rorhat is a highly-satisfying blast of raw, grimy noise rock in the tradition of The Jesus Lizard and The Melvins. Volt could easily have blatantly ripped off the aforementioned bands, yet they somehow have managed to completely reanimate and revive the genre with extremely solid song writing, interesting sound manipulation, and, most of all, a healthy dose of pure attitude.
As can be expected, the guitar sound absolutely reeks of The Jesus Lizard's grittiest, most discordant moments. But the riffs on Rorhat also are so savage they absolutely demand the listener's attention. The songs "Kreuz" (which is the album opener) and "Zwigillusion" do a particularly good job of this. But then there are also monolithic, trance-inducing moments that could easily lull you into a nervous slumber if you're not careful. A good example of this is the twelve-minute album closer, "VLT," which almost veers into drone metal territory.
Volt's vocalist, Andre, has just about nailed the signature howl of The Jesus Lizard's David Yow. He sounds every bit as crazed as Yow, yet is slightly more dynamic, producing a range from barely audible whispers to burly shouts. Not to mention the absolutely thunderous bass and drums that propel the songs forward with the inertia of a herd of stampeding elephants. Rorhat is also sprinkled with traces of subtle, but fascinating, explorations in sound manipulation, for example, the tail end of "Kreuz" and the intermediary track "Praecox" from later in the album.
Comprised of nine solid tracks clocking in at thirty-six minutes, Rorhat is one of the few albums I've heard recently that can hold my attention all the way through. Although well versed in the mannerisms of The Jesus Lizard, Volt is anything but a carbon copy. This album maintains the grimy, "guitars high, vocals low" production values of noise rock, but brings the genre into a glorious new era with its electrifying energy- all in all, not too shabby of an achievement for a first full-length.
