Album Review: Drenge -- Undertow

The success of their first album hasn’t brightened up English twin two-piece Drenge.

Thankfully, Undertow is just as jaded and aggressive as their debut. If anything, this is a heavier record. There’s little of the violent wish-fulfilment of their very first singles. What’s left is just the blistering anger of no-hopers, with drums pummelling at you like fists on a car roof. Some of the guitar solos could have been ripped straight from Humbug-era Arctic Monkeys, but this is raw and masochistic stuff – there’s no sense that Drenge have a five-point plan for selling out stadiums.