Ray Azevedo’s Brazilian rhythms made BRUTAX’s ‘20 Joints’ the hard-rock wildcard you’ll want to pull onto your playlists –

The voracious grooves in Ray Azevedo’s Brazilian rhythms are fast becoming the foundation for bar-raising and pit-starting hard rock. On 20 Joints, the latest single from Vancouver hard-rock heavyweights BRUTAX, the Rio de Janeiro-born, Vancouver-based session drummer, arranger and musician brought more than two decades of instinctive force and rhythmic nerve to the kit.

The track carries the kind of thunderous command that could have easily placed Azevedo in the Lars Ulrich lane of Metallica-esque ferocity. Yet his own identity burns through the release as he raises the temperature, tinting the progressions with a sense of exoticism that will probably make petulant traditionalists itch and give anyone chasing the loudest, freshest flavour in hard rock something to sink their teeth into.

20 Joints was born from the kind of night that becomes folklore: unpredictable Montreal bedlam and the reckless joy of being fully present. That spirit hammers through the single. The half-time shuffle pocket, dynamic shifts and Brazilian-percussion touches make the track feel alive in a way that plenty of heavy music forgets to chase.

Fully in tune with BRUTAX’s tendency towards experimental obscurity, Azevedo rolls out the zany punches in the percussion, augmenting the adrenalised exhilaration until the whole thing tempts you towards carnage.

20 Joints is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast