E. North

E. North was the pummeling force behind the drum kit for Chico legends Buzzwurm, as well as the main mind and guitarist for Rookie 13 (one of the best bands the Northstate has spawned in the past 20 years). It is this lineage that offers the best clue for what’s in store on North’s first solo offering. Banchó harkens back to the early years of Sub-Pop Records, where the line was generously and violently blurred between the anarchistic genres of punk and metal. Playing every instrument on the recording, North takes the punk/metal hybrid and injects it with evil doses of interstellar guitar drone and feedback, backed by punishing rhythms that recall the best of the new metal kings (High on Fire, Mastodon). “Best Thing” and the authoritative “Locking Horns” show North at his finest, constructing songs cased in rage and bathed in menacing atmospherics.