Arizona-born and LA-based metal artist and actor Kerr Lordygan is dropping his second album – titled True Grime – this April, the follow-up to his 2025 debut, “The Nocturnal Instinct Tapes.”
Citing Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Dio, Motley Crue, and Marilyn Manson amongst his greatest influences, us rock and metal nerds are destined to be in for a treat as Kerr Lordygan packs 16 tracks into this hour-and-a-quarter-long record.
The hilariously titled album opener “You Still Look Like That” sets a vibrant scene where glam meets classic hard rock, glitzed with hints of Mercyful Fate and Metallica. Vocals swerve between melody and good old shout, scream, and guttural mixes, backed by a crisp blend of distortions and cleanliness, with Kerr’s guitar licks just as melody-driven as his lyrics. Further on, glimmers of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and more emerge, crowned by a Jack Black sense of humour when it comes to resurrecting the ageless tropes of metal, mastered with class and respect as the ultimate, authentic tribute to bands who first spawned and inspired Kerr Lordygan‘s iconic sound.
Venturing through the record feels like discovering a long-lost basement tape of an undiscovered great hidden deep within an old friend’s music collection; 70s, 80s, and 90s metal moods coalesce to craft a sonic scrapbook that trails you through the golden ages of metal, flicking through snippets of the genre’s highlights like some sort of Satanic patchwork. And there’s something in there for every metalhead to relish – True Grime refusing to stay settled in one sub-genre but confidently stepping through themes of death metal, old-school thrash, speed metal, and more, before returning to its hard rock/glam metal base.
Each headbang-worthy track rings out like a live set, polished atmospheres and sheer power balanced with grit and a vintage tinniness in their production; a refreshing change from the perfectionist norms that saturate modern metal and make most new records sound like a tired replica of another. True Grime’s energy is contagious from start to finish, studded with song titles which instantly grab attention: “Test Tube Messiah,” “She-Creature of the Sea,” and “Cat Dance (Reow!)” marking some of this reviewer’s personal faves.
We’re instant fans and can’t get enough of Kerr Lordygan‘s infectious passion for his craft, leaving us with one final verdict for True Grime: Highly Recommended.
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