Pitchfork

Liars! The Berlin-via-Brooklyn avant-punks talked about a "chilled-out vibe" for their self-titled fourth album, but its opening track (and forthcoming first single), "Plaster Casts of Everything", should set somebody's pants on fire.

Confounding expectations once again, Liars' follow-up to last year's abstract, mountainous Drum's Not Dead starts with...a rock song. Drum's tribal rhythms and high-pitched vocal ululations remain, but here the fiery axe-work is an equally important focus. "I wanna run away/ I wanna bring you, too," frontman Angus Andrew repeats like a heavy-metal Dan Deacon serenading his rattlesnake gun, while distorted guitars thrash just as much as they drone. This stream will only be up for 48 hours, so listen while you can as Andrew rains down what sounds like a "sweet massacre of death."

[from Liars; due 8/28/07 on Mute]