“We don’t normally review seven inch singles, it’s not worth it”.

Thus spake the editor when I suggested a review of this spiteful little beast. After he’d a listen though he changed his mind, and quite right too, as it would have been an absolute travesty to allow this single to fly under the radar without any recognition of it’s incandescent brilliantness.

I’ve been a big fan of the Panzers for a while now, but I can’t remember them ever sounding quite as vital as they do on MotörHeathen. Put simply this is crossover at it’s very best, with every track absolutely snorting with greasy, oil-caked class. Best track is the devastating Lizzy-meets-Motörhead assault on the ears that is The Devil Wins Every Time, but ‘best’ is a relative term when every track – all four of ’em – is an absolute winner. Although they still proclaim their Discharge/Cro-Mags influences proudly this is distinctly more metal than we’ve heard from this band before, with the title track sounding like something High on Fire or (the Algy Ward version of) Tank would like to put their names to.

Whatever the sound they pump out, the only fault to find here is the fact that it is only a seven inch we’re talking about. An album full of material this good would be seriously, seriously in danger of topping my best of 2016 list…