*** Skull Kontrol

ZZZZZZ . . .

(Touch and Go)

There's no stability on this Virginia quartet's second EP, and maybe that's apropos of its being their last. Guitars race ahead of the rhythm section, skidding and sliding in and out of time with slaughterhouse cries of feedback and shards of caustic riffing. That the bass and drums are chasing these frantic guitar lines and almost keeping up with all their erratically seesawing motions is impressive enough in its own right. When Black Flag did this (post Damaged), they had trusty Bill Stevenson (All/Descendents) on drums and steady Kira Roessler on bass, so if Greg Ginn lost you with his prog-punk guitar moves, you always had a warm groove to come home to. Skull Kontrol don't have that option, but they don't need it here. Despite the high-wired tension and tunelessness, ZZZZZZ . . . is compelling in a scratch-that-itchy-scab kind of way (plus, the pain is over in just 15 minutes). And looking at the band members' résumés -- Monorchid, Delta 72, Circus Lupus, and Born Against -- you have to figure that this is really what these sick punks had in mind from the start.

-- Lorne Behrman