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Canadian stoner rock band Barn Burner is back with their sophomore release, Bangers II: Scum of the Earth, through Metal Blade Records.

Barn Burner meld parts of Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath together, while treading into Mastodon territory. A monster wall of sound permeates Bangers II.  Loads of distortion is met with down-tuned, sludgy riffery — similar to their debut album, Bangers.

The band continues their sense of humor about drinking and smoking weed with their play on word song titles, with one being "Keg Stand and Deliver." After all, they hail, as their Myspace page professes, from Bongtreal, Quebec.

What makes Barn Burner fun is their disregard to fitting a mold. Sure, you can hear their Sabbath influences all over the place, but the raspy bark of vocalist/guitarist Kevin Keegan, the chugging power chords of Cameron Noakes, the constant, busy as a bee drum patterns of Taylor Freund and the low-end rumble of bassist Nick Ball is Barn Burner’s strength.

However, Bangers II  is somewhat predictable with very little chord progression or tempo changes. Some of the songs seem to outstay their welcome and you start to lose interest towards the end of the disc. The 10 tracks gracing the album all have the same guitar tonality, razor sharp as it is, the songs seem to run into the next without much change.

There’s nothing overly exciting or original on Bangers II, but it’s decent enough for this type of music. If you liked their debut, then this will please, too. It's hard not to get hooked on their distorted wall of sound.

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