Fortunately, things have changed very little in two years. Faster, louder, and more experimental than Let It Blast, Grand Fury exposes the BellRays in all of their soul-shaking, free-metal glory. Songs bleed into one another, shreds of feedback and noisy improv jams burst out of nowhere, and the band members are occasionally heard shouting out responses to vocalist Lisa Kekaula's crazed wailings. Guitarist Tony Fate's playing is at its peak, as he intertwines explosive Greg Ginn/Black Flag-like riffs with the crunching intensity of the Motor City Madman himself, Ted Nugent (a guitarist whose ax-grinding skills are usually overshadowed by his ludicrous poontang-and-party lyrics). On the loudest numbers--"Too Many Houses in Here," "Fire on the Moon," "Screwdriver," and the glorious "Stupid Fuckin' People"--the BellRays exude more emotion and kick out more jams than every band on the Anger Management Tour combined, ultimately fulfilling their mission with the gospel-metal meltdown of "Under the Mountain." Even when they decide to "slow it down a bit," as on "Evil Morning," "Zero P.M.," and "Have a Little Faith in Me," there's no denying the sheer power in the soulful intensity of Kekaula's vocals.
If Grand Fury had come out 30 years ago (with its gritty and technically spare production, it certainly sounds as if it could have), the same gang of tastemakers who creamed their jeans over the MC5, the New York Dolls, and the Stooges would have convinced us that it's a classic. And they would've been right.
