When guitarist-singer Ralph Spight and bassist Larry Boothroyd decided to bring the Victim's Family moniker out of retirement last year, there was much rejoicing among the Bay Area's left-field punk cognoscenti. Recruiting drummer David Gleza (formerly of Tacoma, Wash.-based band My Name) to fill out the trio, Victim's quickly proved it had lost none of its bile and ferocity with a series of skull-crushing local shows. Apocalicious, the group's fourth release for Alternative Tentacles, continues Victim's tradition of hectic, jazz-inflected hardcore, with a couple of interesting new twists added to the formula. "Moron on Steroids" touches on familiar lyrical territory (Spight delivering a satirical first-person diatribe), but Boothroyd's overdriven bass and Gleza's beefy drums mesh with odd synth doodles to give the song a weird electro-industrial vibe. "Automated" similarly features analog loops and processed guitar feedback dueling over an off-kilter time signature. Spight's growing taste for spacey guitar textures (as heard in the flanged-out opening chords of the album's title song) seems to have reached its logical conclusion with the introduction of avant-electronics to the band's already hefty arsenal of sounds and styles. "Worthy Adversary" (with its rare lead vocal from Boothroyd) and "Fridge" boast the kind of barbed-wire hooks and head-bobbing riffs that have made the group a favorite of adventurous punks the world over. (Dave Pehling)

The Grannies
Taste the Walker (Dead Teenager)