Bunk

Having come off what many thought should have been the winning performance at last month's Long Island Music Festival, Bunk is hot and picking up steam. Leading the charge of Long Island's nuevo-metal explosion, the Freeport-based rock and rap quartet cites everyone from the Beasties and Public Enemy to Metallica and Biohazard as influences— and a brief online listen proves that Bunk wears 'em on its sleeve, but does so with humor.

"Como El Diablo" is a narrative rap piece from Lucifer's "old-school" perspective, quickly evoking images of the Stones and Charlie Daniels. It opens with the intro line from "Sympathy For The Devil," but the tune's fusion of slow rap and grinding guitar sounds like Chuck D. backed by Living Color. "Dirty Old Man" is arguably the best track, with frontman and bassist Greg Botty flexing his bawdy Lurch-like baritone— so frightfully deep and foreboding it'd make Type O Negative's Pete Steele run for the hills.

The band briefly loses their way with the tense and misguided ballad "Bleating," leaving you waiting for an angry eruption that never comes. But it quickly gets back to ass-whuppin' with "Fresh Fly Jam" a metal and groove track that goes over big during the band's live sets and proudly sports the common thread linking all of Bunk's tunes— a testosterone-fueled rhythm section that pummels with distorted chord crunching and amps cranked to 11.

Ax-wrangler Ed Batewell, whose screaming leads give wings to every song, including the head-bashing anthem "Piece of Ass," says Bunk has enough songs to release a box set but still plans to hit the studio in November to record a full-length with 13 songs. Expected out by year's end, the new album has the working title Big Heavy Things and promises more of the ear-splitting, pants-shitting vibe that Bunk has been riding to popularity since forming in early '98. Go to bunknet.com forlinks to both the riffage.comsite (featuring five songs) and the band's page at mp3.com(with three songs).

Send local MP3 URLs to editor@livoice.com.