The Tasmanian Devils known as ROADKILL return from sunny Australia to blister the sound-waves with the long awaited follow-up the 2016 cracker "Extinct". On their latest long-player "Ruled By Machines" the band reach deep into their influences to unleash an eleven-tracks of grime-riddled delight, skillfully played and delivered with an astonishing emotion. Opening with electronic-voices on the title track, the band ignite full-on, guitars, drums and bass explode in synchronized energy.  Old-school kicked in its ass into this new century, a riff-heavy sleaze festival by a band who are hungry to be heard.

"Last Stop Before Hell" opens with cranking guitar, the vocals of Neil "Steel" Wilson is planted somewhere between Vince Neil and dare I say Alice Cooper with the geographical pronunciations of Bon Scott.  The dual guitars of Jim and Zig are the sort of licks that most contemporaries dream off finding but these guys nail effortlessly. On "Breaking All The Rules" the power-chords continue the thread of enjoyment, in contrast "Here Comes Trouble" has an acrobatic bass intro by Ted Teddington, which remains prominent, I am glad to say throughout the track. "Ruled By Machines" remains attainable as the tracks roll on, some may not stand out in the scheme of the album such as "Blood Sweat And Tears", but do have a heavy charm to them.  ROADKILL do display a lot of heart and passion on the album, this fact does come to the surface very well.

"Looking For Love" brings the listener back to nineteen-eighty-five via some nifty guitar work, at times MOTLEY CRUE do come to mind, but that is on top of a wholly original sound.  The foot does not really come off the gas, the tempos slow down as in "Voodoo Woman", but there is thankfully no power-ballad to disrupt the continuity of a highly enjoyable piece of work. Some very flash guitar soloing brings us into the closing two tracks and perhaps standouts, leaving the best until last.  "Fighting The Demons" is a magnificent beast, crunching through as well Steel delivers some laid back snarling vocals.  I can only imagine this record was recorded very loud, dangerous decibel levels which would peel paint off walls.  "Breakout" brings the album to a magnificent close, they never seem to take a breath or simply relax that metal-muscle.

 ROADKILL have a great in-your-face attitude one which allows them to stick to their guns and not become over-commercial while remaining highly accessible.  Not an easy trick to pull off but, with the twelve years already behind them ROADKILL certainly picked up an identity along with a very classy style which has become very honed and will spur them on into the future.