The Barbarians of California describe MEGATONS as a bigger continuation of And Now I'm Just Gnashing My Teeth. The twelve songs are rooted in metallic hardcore, but the band keep throwing in jokes and unexpected grooves. The playing is tight enough to pull it off.
The Gnarlycore Class builds its visual joke around a blunt riff and sticks with it. Really Really Rad takes the stranger turn, switching from thick dissonance to a disco-flavoured ending. Somehow, it works.
Less Pressure, More Fun
Eric Stenman has said the band didn't feel the usual pressure of making a second album. They started later in life and weren't panicking about the follow-up. You can hear that freedom in how readily the songs change direction and laugh at themselves.
The riffs give the jokes somewhere to land. When MEGATONS jumps from dissonance into disco, Aaron Bruno and Eric Stenman still sound like the same band having a very good time with a bad idea.
