The cynic would say that there’s nothing new on the sun in music. All the riffs have been invented, all sounds have been used, it’s all just remakes of what others have already done. We’re just using what Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin did, and they in turn built their material on the Beatles and stuff. I’m part of the cynic party, no doubt.

But then you have the bands who take some of those ingredients from the melting pot of rock’n’roll music and distil their own entirely unique brew. Arsonists Get All The Girls is one of those bands: they mix their own kind of cocktail, that’s for sure! And it’s not the way Tom Cruise would’ve done it, either.

You know, once in a while you fling a new CD in the player and you’re hit by that ‘what the hell would this be live?’ thought. I’m there with AGATG. If this band is anywhere near as crazy and brutal live as they are on ‘The Game of Life’ then it has got to be a f*cking ball!

The Santa Cruz sextet play a perfectly produced blend of metalcore, thrash, death, punk and, I dunno, SEGA games!

‘The Game of Life’ is a furious monster of tempo shifts, growls, screams, tonnage riffing, blast beats, short jazzy parts, as well as simplistic keyboard sounds that provide an underlining of something that can best be described as a computer game soundtrack. It’s brilliant without getting too contrived – simply because the element of brutality creates a red thread through the entire album.

Definitely one of the most interesting releases so far this year!