Editor’s note: Those of you who have What Youth Issue 11 will remember METZ from Chris Cote’s very LOUD interview with them. Just got this from music correspondent Maya Eslami, and it turns out what Chris has been preaching is very much true: METZ is for fucking real. And we encourage you all to blow out your eardrums to them ASAP. —Travis  

I saw METZ (yes, in all caps) play for the first time last week at the Echo, headlining with other mind crushing noise scream bands Obliterations and Retox. Frontman Alex Edkins stood on stage and adjusted his glasses while bandmates Chris Slorach (bass) and Hayden Menzies (drums) readied up, and I thought to myself, what the fuck is this gonna sound like?

Well, they sounded like a fucking noise rock band from Toronto. No fucks given. No bullshit. Just pure noise, and maybe five gallons of sweat.

METZ formed in 2008, linked up with Sub Pop in 2012, and have 2 LPs under their belts, the latest of which came out this past May. Appropriate named II, their second album, as described by Edkins, is “much heavier, darker, and sloppier,” which we’re okay with. “The more we do this,” he said, “the more we realize there’s no such thing as right or wrong in music. It comes down to feel. And if it feels good, it works.” Words to live by right there.

Check out the METZ BandCamp here. 

You can stream II online at their bandcamp and catch their tourdates if you’re in Europe. METZ also played FYF in the middle of the afternoon, and seeing them live, even under the blazing LA sun, put a great big kink in my neck, a good kink. —Maya Eslami