Brand-new pressing of Radioactivity's Silent Kill just added to the Green Noise webstore.  Vital Dirtnap vinyl, essential for any fan of this label and not a bad entry point for the uninitiated, coming out of the debut of this band (which came out of the Marked Men), but also wrenching down and solidifying the engine-hot sound of Radioactivity, fueled with high octane and Iridium 192, powering along from go to whoa with so many moments that just scream aren't you so glad you came along for the ride, maybe backing up a bit to open the shotgun door for hints of influences of the past legends of the Lone Star State but moving through UK punk rock vapor trails until it's just the sound of this band, taking some of the best elements of the Marked Men and just fucking with them enough to free this from the past, rebuilt and souped up, pulling you into the front seat and grabbing your chain with the opener, twisting your collar and never letting go, loosening up the chokehold to hold you close with the dirty-clean rough-hewn beauty of "No Connection" to close the first side, and then hitting it hard on the flipside with two killer cuts that race through your brain like white line fever, slowing a bit to show a more reflective side with "Where I Come From" and then blasting back to push your skull deep into your head rest, gripping the dashboard as the travel hits gravel with "Silent," jumping back to asphalt on "With You," the white lines blurring on the blacktop, pulling you up in your seat like the yank of a choke chain, keeping it taut till the end, the checkered flag just making you want to take another lap, the closer sounding like a great opener, great ending to a kick-ass side, kick side of a killer album. -- winch 

(NO DOWNLOAD CODE!!!  Analog only!)

Seems pretty safe to assume that almost no one doubted Radioactivity's ability to follow up their 2013 Dirtnap debut with something equally stunning. Frontman and chief songwriter Jeff Burke (The Marked Men, The Reds, The Potential Johns) has certainly done more than enough to earn that kind of expectation and pressure. But Silent Kill, which finds Burke backed by Marked Men compatriot Mark Ryan and two-thirds of Bad Sports (Daniel Fried and Gregory Rutherford), does more than merely match the virtues of its self-titled predecessor.

Radioactivity's first LP was rightly hailed as a sort of sequel to The Marked Men's remarkable run through the first decade of the millennium, and while Silent Kill bears the unmistakable hallmarks of that band's tightly wound "Denton sound," Radioactivity can now lay claim to a sonic territory of their very own. Burke's distinctive hooks dig as deep as ever, but the scope of his vision has expanded, and now that the Burke/Ryan/Fried/Rutherford all-star team has had some time to cohere, Radioactivity can do all sorts of damage in less than thirty minutes.

Although the twelve songs on Silent Kill abide one strict rule--providing garage punk pleasure at all costs--Radioactivity bend that mandate in myriad ways. Breathless ragers like "Battered" and "No Alarm" are as fleet and raw as anything in the combined canon of Radioactivity's members, while mid-tempo heartbreakers "Way Out," "Connection" and "Where I Come From" find Burke and company opening up their sound to let in a little tenderness. And then there are songs like "Not Here" or "With You," which enact perfect unions of melody and kinetic energy.

Admirers of Burke's legacy will be not only satisfied, but pleasantly surprised.