with duane denison's stinging scalpel guitar, david yow's texas-inflected rants, and a punishing rhythm section, the jesus lizard was an animal without precedent outside of nick cave's similarly disruptive birthday party. their second album, 'goat', portrays a band growing comfortable with its power, featuring tightly wound songs that slam hard without resorting to hardcore histrionics. the production by big black's steve albini gives the rhythm section all the space it needs to wallop with a mallet of mutant punk-funk groove. on tracks like 'nub,' dennison's guitars cut through like a rusty chop-shop buzzsaw while yow seethes with madman intensity.