Album Review: Janus Stark – ‘Rewind To A’ and ‘Chez Wrong’

Gizz Butt, a name that strikes of Punk Rock royalty in most parts has during lockdown been hard at work putting together this wonderful package of new and revisited songs, but in a complete different way, the first of the bunch is the critically acclaimed ‘Great Adventure Guitar’ (The Demos).

In this first instalment ‘Rewind To A’  you not only get to hear 11 tracks that shook the foundations of the punk world and beyond, but you get to hear it as it was first imagined, songs that rock every inch of your sound system, ‘Clique’ being the first track on the album, gives off all the attitude and musical guile that your head can cope with and sets the tone for a musical adventure of epic proportions.  Being one of the best guitar maestros there is, is not enough for Gizz, he also excels in the lyrical quarter too, with so much to say in ways that keep you on your toes, sometimes a little too cryptic, but why make things so easy.  What you get beyond this, is an album that slices and dissects what punk should be, with dance creeping into songs like ‘200 Duty Frees’, the flat out melodic punk of ‘Black Box’, ‘Frayed Edges Of Sanity’ giving off the Prodigy influence (at least this was my feeling of it), ‘Barriers’ with it’s usage of riffs to create melody and then ‘Wedding Bells’ having an underbelly of hardcore/rock lineage.  Combined, this creates an whole new style of album, that never feels stale and never rests on its laurels, an album of experimentation that never feels that way to the listener, it scales the walls that sometimes separate genres with ease.

Then to the second of the trilogy ‘Chez Wrong’ which is the Janus Stark album that never was, demos that should have been recorded and released somewhere around 2002.

A whole 12 tracks that when kicking off with ‘Near Extinction’ you come to hear a much heavier side, a vocal that’s come of age and a much less experimental edge to it, a more rounded and consolidated sound, Metallica being a name that springs to mind when listening, this shows very much so in the title track ‘Chez Wrong’ a huge powerhouse of a song, which considering it was written so long ago, definitely was so ahead of its time and is not at all just a retro look back, this goes for the whole album.

As has come to be apparent with anything Gizz Butt does, he never sits back and simply rehashes a formula, this goes for all his work, in fact this goes for whole projects, take ‘Sucksession’ this songs has riffs, licks and beats that are Slipnot before they even thought of it.

On first listen, you could be drawn into the false thought that this is some kind of rock fest that takes all its markers from what has gone before or what is still to come, the latter is a more apt description, if you scratch the surface, what you get, is a world of complexity that could never be anything else than original and forward thinking.

Finally, if you buy what are two, perfectly brilliant stand alone albums, you will get the icing on the cake, a free four track digital EP of Gizz Butt songs.  Four songs that bring everything that is Gizz Butt to the table, a mix of punk rock, melodic ditties, straight up power rock, and thought provoking lyrics.

A full package of everything that is great and innovative about the punk rock scene, by a man that deserves every accolade that may or may not come his way.

Get your hands on this package HERE

And HERE

Connect with Janus Stark on their Facebook HERE