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The last time I wrote about Tomahawk Chips, I regaled you with my take on their BBQ and Ketchup flavours. I tried to track down an easier way to find them locally (you can order them on Amazon.ca now) but it was to no avail (they didn't email me back). Low and behold, my friend Top was at a store recently and picked me up a bag of Fire Chip (spicy flavour)..(unbeknownst to her that these chips were actually on my active list of chips to try). First thing's first, who's the artist who created the front art for the bag..(because as far as I can tell the art comes first, chips come second with Tomahawk Chips)..well it was none other than Mabel Nigiyok. Mabel created a piece with what appears to be Inuit hunters with seals, a polar bear and some buffalo among a landscape. As I was reading the back of the bag looking for the artist, I noticed that they have a "Friendchip Choice, Native Canadian Chip Corporation" slogan and logo (I also noticed that these chips are best before November 23, what up November 23 birthday people). (Before I cracked the bag I took a guess at what they'd taste like..my guess, is a hot BBQ flavour) When I peeled the bag apart and took a whiff I was met with the scent of BBQ seasoning, vegetable oil and potatoes. I was actually quite surprised when I looked in the bag and found out that these chips were mid height ridged chips. They taste like a non-mesquite BBQ (old school Old Dutch style) with quite a kick at the back end consumption (there's a faint hint of sweetness with some smoke). It's almost a Tabasco type heat (maybe a bit more mild than Tabasco). The chips have a slightly crunchier mid-weight crunch to them. The further you get into them the more the heat overtakes the BBQ flavour (but when I got right to the last few crumbs I was met with a beautiful mixture of heat, sweetness and BBQ [maybe it's just in my head]). The bag's 43g and I think it might be the perfect size for this bag, they induce a bit of forehead sweats so anything larger would be less enjoyable as I think the spicy BBQ flavour would wear out it's welcome..but in a small dose they're enjoyable.

If you ignore the small dose line above and just focus on the heat with a hint of BBQ'd sweetness you'd swear I was talking about Shook Ones (not really but stay with me on this one). Shook Ones bang. They have a heavy Lifetime influence. The vocals are shredded throat gruff. The music ranges from mid-tempo to upper-mid..with the odd straight up ripper. I'd describe them as hardcore with some serious pop underlying and post-hardcore/grunge influence hanging out in the background. In their 15ish years as a band they've only released 4 full lengths..that's mostly because of the 9 year gap between their 2009 smash The Unquotable A.M.H. and their 2018 return Body Feel. Their sound has remained fairly consistent throughout with Body Feel being slightly slower (I do mean slightly [but it's enough that Body Feel hasn't gripped me quite as much as A.M.H. to this point, I'm thinking it's slightly more of a grower]). But don't take my word for it...(check them out for yourself..and if you dig it, get yourself a copy).

Stay hydrated,
marc

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