01. Blood Red Sky02. Buzz Killa03. The Blood Code04. Can’t Stoop05. Every Night’s Alright For Fighting06. Night Wolf07. DOA08. Comin’ In Hard09. Dead Men Can’t Dance10. Dead ReckoningPossessed by the power of the riff and wired tight with punk rock indignance, RAGING SPEEDHORN have always been a guaranteed good time, for those who can stomach it. The band are legendary in the UK, where a combination of great records and a tendency to cause destruction at every turn made them darlings of a slightly fearful rock press. The road to “Night Wolf” has been more than a little rocky, with lineup changes, at least one incongruous change of direction, an eventual split in 2008, a reunion in 2014, and a perpetual sense of chaos surrounding their every move, but RAGING SPEEDHORN are a band that refuse to be killed. If they are going to go out, they will go out in a grand conflagration of booze-addled, heavy metal glory, all riffs blazing, and fuck the consequences. Their seventh studio album proves it, with all the snotty hostility and good-times recklessness that any rock ‘n’ roll hooligan could need.In their original incarnation, RAGING SPEEDHORN drew directly from the crusty, sludge metal motherlode of EYEHATEGOD and the UK’s own IRON MONKEY. By the time they re-emerged and revitalized a decade ago, a new lineup and renewed motivation led to an all-encompassing strain of balls-out, old-school hard rock and metal that suited the Corby clobberers down to the ground. Two subsequent albums — “Lost Ritual” (2016) and “Hard To Kill” (2020) — have cemented the change, and given the band several extra doses of authority in the process. But in keeping with their new relationship with Spinefarm Records, “Night Wolf” is bigger and better than its predecessors, and RAGING SPEEDHORN sound better equipped to launch a major campaign than they have in decades. It makes all the difference that they have tapped back into the seemingly endless source of riffs that made their early records so addictive. “Blood Red Sky” is hewn from pure heavy metal thunder, based on one of those mangled SABBATH riffs that sludge metal depends upon, but infused with a rampaging, rock ‘n’ roll spirit. This is foot-on-monitor, horns up and howl at the moon shit. The beers practically open themselves. The rest of “Night Wolf” brims with audacious steals from classic rock (“Buzz Killa” hijacks LED ZEP’s “Kashmir” and shatters its ribcage) and implausibly dense and groovy hybrids of BLACK FLAG punk ferocity and doomed-out hard rock.Slower songs like “The Blood Code” and the title track reimagine the bleak, concrete density of BLACK SABBATH’s original blueprint, with Frank Regan and Daniel Cook’s dual vocal attack puncturing a wall of guitars like two rusty scalpels. Punishing, mid-paced riff-ups like “Can’t Stop” and “DOA” are hardcore lean and perfect for a circle pit brawl. And, as its title suggests, “Every Night’s Alright For Fighting” is the stoner metal equivalent of a brick hurled through the window, with an irresistible vocal hook, a manic gait, and several fuck-tons of undiluted aggro sewn into its seams. Someone, maybe everyone, is going to get hurt, and RAGING SPEEDHORN are probably depending on it.”Night Wolf” is in touch with the fuck-it-all, youthful exuberance that first pushed this band to the forefront in the UK, but an older and wiser SPEEDHORN is a far more dangerous proposition. Welcome back (again),you rock ‘n’ roll bastards.[embedded content]