You're hanging out with some dudes you don't know that well. They come pick you up at your mom's house after 9 in a beat-up truck with clean tires and a loud engine, peeling out with no particular direction or place to go. Cassettes of Black Sabbath and Metallica make their way into the deck, with the guys fast-forwarding through the "wimpy" songs, to your chagrin. The driver pulls cans from the 12-pack on the bench seat, tossing his empties onto the barely-paved roads beneath your wheels. The other guys yell incoherently at pedestrians as you pass them by. You make extended stops full of handshakes and cigarette smoke at gas stations and 7-11s and Dunkin Donuts parking lots. There's talk of finding some girls to hang out with, but you know that's pretty unlikely.

The whole night feels dangerous and alive. You know this isn't your peak or where you want to find your true self-identity, but you're still a little buzzed and doing ok. The reckless fun and abandon of the evening are ok. You nod your head and dig the heavy music buzzing out of the speakers. It's a night of testosterone and lowered inhibitions and lessened politeness and the radio volume knob turned all the way to the right. That's kind-of what it's like to listen to Droids Attack.

Their "Sci-Fi or Die" album is the first must-have of 2016. They take simple, crispy, fuzzy blues-thrash riffs - - riffs that you and I would come up with in any given jam session - - and groove the shit out of them. It sounds a bit like "Kill 'Em All" might have, if Metallica had lured vocalist John Bush from Armored Saint and never hired on a lead shredder. I'd originally discovered this band through some hipster's smarmy one-line reviews of 2008's South by Southwest music festival. For Droids Attack, he'd said: "I can practically smell the beer sweat." I'm sure it was meant as an insult, but I think it was a good preparation for their brand of grimy, hard, hard rock. Almost a decade later, they're still employing the same methodology and still delivering on the heavy, unfiltered, unpretentious goods.