Album Review: The Amazing Snakeheads - Amphetamine Ballads

This kind of no-fucks-given, sloppy, shambolic, ramshackle garage punk from Aberdeen's The Amazing Snakeheads exists between the lines. They're fucking awesome and are loud, rambunctious, ridiculously energetic and somehow capable of distilling all of that into a single album. The effortless catch-cry of opener I Am A Vampire puts the dot on the Amazing Snakeheads manifesto; avant-jazz, minimalist art rock and proto-punk all inform their unique sound. Tracks like Flatlining, with its Jim Morrison-esque vocal line, and the spacious, stimulating Velvet Underground homage Heading For Heartbreak are transcendent. In its unpredictability, Amphetamine Ballads just works.