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Fun lovin’ German speed metal with an obvious nod to Motörhead: that’s Nitrogods in a nutshell, which you’ll already know if you’ve heard their self-titled debut album.

Forged by members of Primal Fear and Thunderhead, their second full-length release sees them continuing their psychobilly-tinged speed metal set to gruff and gritty Lemmy-style vocals, with a few curveballs in style: Irish Honey could be a jaunty tune for a musical set in an Irish pub, and Back Home is similarly jig-like.

There are southern twangs, like Nothing But Trouble and the acoustic Whiskey Wonderland, but the speedy stuff dominates, and with 15 tracks, many start to mesh together. Despite this niggle, Rats And Rumours is still a raucous, rough ’n’ tumbling ride, and it includes a live DVD of the lads in action./o:p

Hannah May Kilroy has been writing about music professionally for over a decade, covering everything from extreme metal to country. She was deputy editor at Prog magazine for over five years, and previously worked on the editorial teams at Terrorizer and Kerrang!. She currently works as the production editor for The Art Newspaper, and also writes for the Guardian, Classic Rock and Metal Hammer.