Must Destroy

Appreciating the songs on Madison metal trio Droids Attack's third album, Must Destroy, is like appreciating the way fluorescent nacho cheese ripples across a pile of chips. The overall flavor of guitarist-vocalist Brad Van's over-scuzzed tone doesn't change much from serving to serving, yet neither does the salty chaos underneath. Except for their punk-rock aggression, Droids prefer the primordial, keeping a strong whiff of blues and plenty of burly yelling at the front of the mix. Must Destroy hints many times that Droids appreciate variety, and generally stick to this formula anyway because that's what's fun for them. (They certainly aren't the first or last hard-rock band to cling stubbornly, proudly, to metal's early building blocks).

"Blueshammer" presumably takes its name from the "way down in the Delta" bozos Blues Hammer in Ghost World, but avoids their minstrel-show fate by switching up rhythmically: Drummer Tony Brungraber swings through the verses, and rumbles on his toms and kick in between. A cool neck-climbing ripple and Nate Bush's warm bass tone help to keep "Crisis In The City" grounded after a long doodle of an intro. Van's grimy shouts on "Crisis" pour some real accelerant on the song, while his vocals on "Must Destroy" and "Canadian Death Bus" stick to a less exciting blues-moan.

Van keeps things on the good-humored side of macho and lets his obsessions with video games and robots leak in, with song titles like "The Arcade Bully" and "Koko Beware." (Speaking of titles, it's impossible to respond to "The Great Wall Of Gina" without shooting Pabst out your nose, even if you're not drinking one.) With the help of keyboard player Tim Thompson's shiny organ chords and some of Van's more slow-burning leads, opening track "Unforgiven 4" and closer "Astro Glider" (both instrumentals) achieve a stately stoner-rock plod. In between, Must Destroy is equal parts fun and repetition.

Droids Attack play an acoustic set opening for Nick Oliveri tonight at The Frequency; they'll celebrate the CD-release with a Feb. 13 show at The Frequency.