Annihilation Time take great chunks of fiery rock, shards of visceral punk and heat it all up with the fire of hardcore to form a big molten fist which they ram repeatedly down the lugholes of all who come within earshot. They are the theme-tune to a fist-fight between Gallows, Municipal Waste and Thin Lizzy.With a history of line-up changes and one more occurring quite recently, Annihilation Time III follows straight on from where they left off with Annihilation Time II almost as if no time had passed between releases. Opening with 30 seconds of bizarre vocal warbling on ‘Splash Back’ we follow on to ‘About To Snap’ which is loaded with 70s thick dual riffs played at full pelt over which vocalist Jimmy Rose spits out his Frank Carter-esque stream of vitriol. It sets the theme for the rest of album nicely. There’s little in the way of respite with expletives and windy sound effects aplenty. ‘Just Guzzlin’ is a soaring party track of tuneless group singing, interweaving dirty guitar leads and feisty speed-drumming. The desire to air guitar is everywhere - be it the maddeningly rocktastic opening riff of ’Bald Headed Woman’ or the whining Maiden-like strings on ‘Bad Luck’ you’ll find yourself clawing at the air and arching your back like a good ‘un.This album is a musical Tasmanian Devil, a screaming ball of flailing legs and arms, all bite and might and fury. It draws from a rich mine of hardcore and rock history so won’t necessarily win any awards for originality. Then there is always the fact that Annihilation Time’s break-neck ballsy sound will always be best experienced live. However, they have had a good crack at reproducing it in the studio muzzling the guitars and sharpening the vocals nicely. So, yes, it’s not particularly big, it’s not necessarily clever, but it’s most definitely worthy. RAWK! 85%Links Annihilation Time [official site] [myspace]