Hailing from the US equivalent of Slough, Scanton, Pennsylvania (the home of the fictional Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company on the American version of The Office), The Menzingers give off the impression that they’ve been reared on raw meat. For few groups have sounded as hungry on their debuts. As producer Jesse Cannon (The Cure, Lifetime, Say Anything) opines: “I record bands every day and almost all of them are missing something. The Menzingers have it all, the songs, the aggression, the heart and the passion that most only dream of.”

Along with lion feed, Joe Godino on drums, guitarists/vocalists Greg Barnett and Tom May, and Eric Keen on bass, grew up on The Clash. Impressively, the gang of four attempt an audacious cover of ‘Straight To Hell’. Even more impressively, they manage to pull it off.

And lest you conclude The Menzingers to be solely a punk band, they also turn their hand to acoustic folk on ‘Richard Coury’. Based on the Chronicle-of-a-Death-Foretold-esque poem by Edwin Arlington, it recalls a young Billy Bragg. Minus the Estuary accent.

(3¾/5)