This no-holds-barred groove-guitar-rock fire, though? We can’t get enough of it. Released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows, it is a spin-off in the Metal Gear series, and is set four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Spoon’s flirtation with electronic textures on their last LP, 2017’s Hot Thoughts, wasn’t unwelcome, of course. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is an action hack and slash video game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Konami Digital Entertainment. Platinum Games’ newest action hit, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has finally dropped, and gamers everywhere are struggling to acclimate to the parry system. Having only joined the group as a full-time member in 2019, he puts the bow on top of this rocker with a smokin’ solo anchored in blues and rockabilly tradition and powered by jet-fueled punk aggression. The unexpected star of the show, however, is Gerardo Larios.

Lead singer and guitarist Britt Daniel lets his signature Telecaster Thinline do a lot of the talking, imbuing the song with Billy Gibbons-informed riffing and chord stabs that have bite, growl, and attitude for days, while never straying from their core rhythmic purpose. The lead single from Lucifer on the Sofa – the Austin natives’ first album of new material in almost five years – The Hardest Cut is no mere period piece or simple homage. metal gear rising metal gear rising revengeance platinum studios tips There’s a part early on in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance where you’re going to want to give up. What do you get when you take the ample swagger and strut of ‘70s boogie-rock and filter it through the sometimes cynical but ultimately empathetic eyes of a band like Spoon? Something, it would seem, like The Hardest Cut.

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