Sister | Hated
by Mark Allen
Staff Writer
Swedish rockers Sister have taken every torment they suffered at the hands of older siblings, every beat-down they received from playground bullies, every broken heart they endured at the hands of some bimbo, every insult ever flung at their mascara-wearing faces from some corporate killjoy, and channeled all that anger and aggression into Hated, their Metal Blade Records debut. This is primal, pissed off, punk-infused hard rock with a colossal chip on its shoulder and all the “f**k you” attitude you can stand, all drenched in a grimy coating of profanity-powered sleaze metal.
If Motley Crue, Shake the Faith, Twisted Sister, Vamp Le Stat, and Wednesday 13 engaged in a rock-‘n’-roll gang-bang in some rat-ridden back alley, the results might resemble something like Sister. You can call this sleaze metal, you can call this heavy glam, you can call this hard rock, as long as whatever label you slap it with is defined by an overdose of cranked-to-the-max attitude. Because when stripped down to the bare bones, that is ultimately Sister’s raison d’être: kick you in the teeth attitude. Their lips are constantly curled in feral sneers and their middle fingers are forever raised (which must make playing their instruments difficult); in other words, you won’t be mistaking Sister for the latest Christian rock sensation.
The production has a raw edge, but who wants slick perfection from a band that is all about loud guitars, shouted choruses, and gang vocals? Sister gets off—and gets you off—on the strength of their sheer ferocity, adrenalin, and viciousness with little time for technical perfection. That’s not to say the band is sloppy, because they are not, but their music is mostly concerned with drilling you in the eardrums with gargantuan grooves, raging rhythms, and head-banging hooks. Whether or not you are impressed with their skill level, they give not a damn. Actually, “damn” is a too mild for this band, so what they would probably say is that they don’t give a fu—well, you know what they would say.
After a useless intro, “Body Blow” slams your senses just like the title suggests, affirming the fact that this is a heavy-hitting, full-throttle, hold onto your jockstrap sleaze metal album with all the trimmings. “Bullshit & Backstabbing” follows up with roaring, take-no-prisoners fury and more pissed off anger than Nancy Grace after finding out Casey Anthony got away with killing her kid. Things slow down (“slow down” being a relative term for this band) just a bit for the title track, which summons early Skid Row with its heavy but commercial approach. Then we’re galloping back onto gritty glam-punk ground with “Motherfucker (Like You),” which somehow manages to up the attitude ante. That ante is upped even further with “Spit on Me” and if you’re starting to detect a pattern of attitude overload here, it’s a pattern fully embraced by the band.
By the time the album ends with “Drag Me to the Grave,” the songs will probably have become one big sleazy metal blur. There is little variation here, the band content to repeatedly recycle their own riffs. Their saving grace is that those recycled riffs are rather enjoyable in that badass, rough-me-up kind of way. Still, for the most part, if you’ve heard one song on this CD, you’ve sort of heard them all.
If you’re looking for a filthy feast of degenerate debauchery and enough sinful shenanigans to make you feel like taking a shower, then you can’t go wrong letting these sleaze merchants do the catering. Hair metal maniacs, especially those with a hankering for the heavy glam-sleaze subgenre, may not fall in love with Hated, but odds are they won’t mind hooking up with it every now and then.
Genre: Sleaze Metal
Band:
Jamie (vocals)
Lestat (guitar, backing vocals)
Rikki (bass, backing vocals)
Cary (drums, backing vocals)
Track Listing
1. Radioactive Misery
2. Body Blow
3. Bullshit & Backstabbing
4. Hated
5. Motherfuckers (Like You)
6. Werewolves on Blackstreet
7. Spit on Me
8. The Unlucky Minority
9. Would You Love a Creature
10. To Bad for You
11. Drag Me to the Grave
Webpage: www.sisteronline.net
Label: Metal Blade Records
Hardrock Haven rating: 7.4/10