My first impression of these kids was that they'd be aggressive, driving girl-metal with too much goddamn attitude. What gave me that idea? The cover, as you can clearly see, is a close-up of a sloppily stitched-up wound, and wounds are almost always a symbol of aggressive rock music. And guess what? There's a lot of really generic aggressive-rock going around these days. It made me not wanna listen to it.

When I finally got around to popping it in, I was actually stunned at how good the band was. When the CD kicked off with a startling jolt of feedback and one rockin' electric guitar, I was wondering whether it was live or Memorex, but it turned out it was just the assbeating riddims of "Shea," which is powerful enough to top radio playlists and sales charts alike, but undoubtedly never will.

"Wish You Were Dead" fades in peacefully with waves of softly distorted chords until you hear the meaty heartbeat of the bass drum. As much as this song hates you, you're in love with it and regardless of how much you care, it's going to keep abusing you. But we'll leave my ex-girlfriend out of it.

-Ryan Schreiber