9/10
Lancashire’s most unflinching agitators TV Face return with 'Wolf Rents Bark', an album that sharpens its teeth on satire and sinks them straight into the jugular of late capitalism. Following the underground acclaim of their debut offering 'Tide of Men', their sophomore effort tears their foundations apart and reconstructs it as something leaner, darker, and far more volatile.
Recorded live at Liverpool’s Whitewood Studios with producer Rob Whiteley, the record trades in polish for raw muscle. The Albini-style ethos is clear from the first note, capturing in full feral motion, unvarnished and uncompromising. Tracks bristle with tension, guitars lunge like a cornered animal, and the rhythm section hits with the weight of collapsing concrete.
Thematically, 'Wolf Rents Bark' is a hall of mirrors, its songs circling around humanity’s appetite for destruction and the grotesque dance between predator and prey. 'Boots Pocket Coffin' thrashed its way into the world earlier this year, a mutant collision of horror-punk swagger and noise-rock chaos that felt tailor-made for sweaty basements and late-night panic attacks. While its follow-up 'White Noise White Lies' drives even deeper into the band’s obsession with deceit and distortion, with riffs that stalk rather than sprint, tightening the noose as the song unfolds.
But it’s not just noise for noise’s sake. Like their best work, TV Face lace their fury with sardonic bite. References to Orwell, Goya, and Pinocchio creep into the lyrical fabric, transforming the record into a warped fable of power, greed, and complicity. The title itself draws from this imagery of wolves in suits who simultaneously fleece and beg, playing a rigged game where everyone loses.
What makes 'Wolf Rents Bark' such a formidable listen is how it manages to be both cerebral and visceral. It’s a record that lands punches to the gut while whispering in your ear about the absurdity of the fight. A snarling, claustrophobic document of our times, it’s proof that TV Face are among the few bands unafraid to soundtrack collapse with both venom and vision.
