If you had have told me after my first listen to Shun‘s admirable debut that it had been recorded under house arrest conditions in various American bedrooms and basements, I’d have requested that you stop wasting my time and ceased all communications with you immediately. Because the taut, economical claustrophobia of tracks like Machina just doesn’t point to that kinda scenario at all. Music this good is surely the work of road-tightened veterans, years into a career hardened by we-are-the-roadcrew-type lifestyles, no?

Well, no. And the first bit of that opening statement was absolutely true. And yet I stand by the second bit of that opening para still, because I haven’t heard music as tight, as superbly executed and as goddamn mesmerising as this in a long, long time. However it happened to be made.

Basically, if the Foo Fighters had have avoided a life of Hollywood openings and celebrity girlfriends, concentrating instead on year after year on the road with COC, Clutch and Cave In, they’d sound something like Shun. And as I’m sure you’ll agree, that’s a mighty fine something to sound like.

Scott Brandon and Matt Whitehead put up a sheet metal processing plant’s amount of din with their six string batterings – but it’s a beautiful, shimmering din at that, and have a listen to their superb work on Undone or especially the scintillating standout track A Wooden House if you don’t believe me – but it’s the grinding, locked-in-as-well-as-locked-down battery of rhythm section Rob Elzey and bassist Jeff Baucom that is really the black, festering heartbeat of the band. A formidable pairing – again, I’d suggest listening to the febrile, writhing rhythms of Near Enemy if you still won’t take my word for it – they hammer out a template of near genius for every track, providing an adamantine framework for those two axemen to create magic over. And we haven’t even mentioned Whitehead’s vocals yet, which soar over the top of it all with majestic, if somewhat understated, ease. There’s no heavy metal screaming here, if that’s what you’re after…

But there is plenty of top-notch, superbly thought-out and executed, ‘progressive’ in the best sense of the word heavy rock on offer, and I strongly urge you to get some Shun in your ears as soon as your doubtless busy schedule allows – you’ll be thanking me for the tip for a long, long time, let me tell you…

Shun releases on June 4th