METZ: Strange Peace

It’s mighty fine to see Sub Pop enjoy a new level of notoriety these last five years or so thanks to the breakout success of such acts as Father John Misty and a post-Portlandia Sleater-Kinney.
But for those of us who’ve been along for the entire wild ride of the venerated Seattle imprint’s story, the existence of Toronto noise rock group METZ in its ranks is undoubtedly indicative of some kinda fever dream where Mudhoney’s Mark Arm, who works for Sub Pop as their warehouse manager, smacked a copy of the group’s demo on the A&R guy’s desk lamenting, “Man, why aren’t we signing bands like this anymore? Yet since inking a contract with the label in 2012, the trio has established a young legacy of brutality that’s right up there with some of the loudest sounds on Sub Pop’s storied roster.
For their third LP Strange Peace, METZ headed to Chicago, cutting the album live to tape with Steve Albini, who imbues the same feral nature he has given his own bands and dozens of other recordings onto the compositions of guitarist/vocalist Alex Edkins, drummer Hayden Menzies and bassist Chris Slorach. Yet at the same time, he allowed enough space on the recordings to let the group expand upon their root ferocity.