-Greg’s Take-

In the late 1990s four individuals (colored green, yellow, purple and pink) ditched the television screens on the stomachs and came in contact with a tube of toxic green goo underneath New York City. Trained by their anthropomorphic sensei from the planet Peelander they battled evil, kept the city safe, consumed a plethora of pizza and, as of recent, made metal music.

Ok, so that isn’t entirely true. In fact that is almost completely false.

But I want to believe New York based, by way of Japan, Peelander-Z is open to interpretation. And with the release of Metalander-Z if you spend too much time thinking about it, you’re going to miss it anyway.

The band has crossed my desk, at least in name, several times and after giving myself a firm talking to I can humbly admit that I was missing out by not listening to them sooner. Though they may look like a mutated metal version of the Teletubbies, if you call Peelander-Z anything remotely close to “cheesy” or “poser” they will tear you up with face melting guitar shreds and more metal structure than Lars Ulrich can bitch about.  In fact, they were so hell-bent on making their own form of Ballad-Eighties-Fun-Rock-Heavy-Metal they spent quite a bit of time collecting everything they needed to record it. As album engineer Chico Jones puts it “The only era-specific items we didn’t manage to get in the studio were hookers and blow, and I blame the producer for that.”

Peelander-Z’s ability to sink their hooks in and make you an instant fan must be planet Peelander’s equivalent power to Krypton’s superhuman power to complain about who plays Batman here on Earth. Little ballad-metal ditties (“Dye Your Hair”), uplifting you-can-do-it moments (“Ride On The Shooting Star”), shredding crank-to-11 tracks (“Metal Man”) and even a hardcore rendition of the English alphabet make up the ten track awesomeness that is Metalander-Z; which could just as easily be referred to as the most fun I’ve had since discovering The Darkness.

To me, they are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Metal Teletubbies and I couldn’t have been happier with this discovery. There is an enormous amount of argument that could be made about their metal style and the road that got them there; but, the one thing that stands firm is the fact that this foursome are spectacular musicians and one hell of a fun experience. The smile inducing, instantly addicting Metalander-Z has made this guy a massive Peelander-Z fan.  Get your hands on this album. You can thank me later.