Sexy Butchers

Joey Eyebank Ramone gets out the cleaver for another hatchet job...

Imperial Vipers - Searching : Falling : Silence
www.imperial-vipers.com

Sounding Avenged Sevenfold doing Johnny Panic covers with Soundgarden on the p.a system, these tracks all have powerful, energy fuelled guitar riffs, radio friendly choruses topped off with pumping Hendrix like soloing. This is the ideal band for bored Guns'n'Roses and Johnny Panic fans, or even people that just want to try something new.
8/10

Scissors for lefty - Ghetto Ways
www.scissorsforlefty.com

If this electric mix of beats, keyboards and guitars doesn't have you moonwalking down your bedroom, then you obviously haven't listened properly. With its sharp flicks and alternative, angular guitar playing, each song has multi-textured industrial riffing with vocals sounding like The Kooks in a 70's death disco and electric keyboard flirting over the top. This all makes for the ultimate 'Scissors for Lefty' experience; if it doesn't lighten up your day then I don't know what will.
10/10

M J Hibbett and the Validators - We Validate www.mjhibbett.net

This album consists of trashy poppy keyboards, heavy songs with terrible clashing lead vocals, out of time and out of tune with the backing vocals; this doesn't make it original or appealing, it just makes it crap! If you got an Irish folk band and tried to make them sing punk, you'd get The Validators.

3/10

Kunk - demo
http://www.myspace.com/kunk

The opening track pumps out of my stereo, thrashing indie and grunge pouring out of the speakers, and it was so good that I thought I saw some shock waves blasting out my cd player. They sound like the missing link between The Rakes and Blur. The second song sounds similar to The Hives with a bit of Nirvana mixed in, and to my ears it creates a perfect mix of sound for an ultimate song.

Although this band aren't very well known and are in fact just a bunch of teenagers that sent badly recorded e.p simply titled 'Kunk' on a messy disc with marker pen scribbled all over it, they come off as one of my favourite bands I've listened to in my reviewing career!

10/10

Sexy Butchers : Mug / Dead Vicar Diaries www.myspace.com/sexybutchersxxx

The purely controversial artwork, song titles and lyrics made me want to find out what this lot sounded like; the artwork on their 'Dead Vicar Diaries' DVD shows a wasted clergyman reclining on a chair with bloodshot eyes and a heroin needle in his left arm and the covered with Sexy Butcher's song names, such as "Fuck Myself". This, and inadvisable lyrics such as "piss your pants on the bus shouting fuck! Bludgeon Morse and date rape combo", might seem like extreme shock tactics designed to camouflage lack of content, but after listening to this I had the songs in my head for the rest of the day. The songs are infectious, the singer has a brilliant voice sounding like a cross between Kurt Cobain and Layne Stayley, Alice in Chains' vocalist and the drummer is excellent, holding the a pneumatic steady beat. With quality like this, Sexy Butchers are a band that don't need to use slightly dodgy shock tactics.

9 / 10

Refused Are Fucking Dead
http://www.myspace.com/refused


This DVD documentary charts the life of one of hardcore's most short lived punk bands: Refused. It explains how, despite keeping a low profile, underground band who never sold out into the mainstream, they managed to influence a new generation of music fans and bands.

This DVD gives you an idea about what kind of band Refused were, but it fails to explain how they rose to the top of the hardcore underground scene. Instead, it focuses on how the band tumbled down the industry at the end of their career.

The extras include a full live concert and two of the band's most well known videos, which end up being better than the documentary itself. If you really want to experience the true Refused experience, I suggest you buy 'The Shape of Punk to Come' or 'Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent'.

5 / 10