The Distillers

Coral Fang - (Sire)

This is all very simple. In fact, Coral Fang may be the simplest and most uncomplicated recording of the year. This is Anger 101 - meaningless angst and/or bravado set to the imagery of blood, death, gallows, and general Halloweenie stuff. I don't mean of the Misfits campy variety (which I happen to love) but of the self-important statement kind. Brody Dalle (former wife of Rancid's Tim Armstrong and current gossip fodder - which I won't bother with when you can just look stuff up on the internet if you give a rat's ass about such stuff) and company play textbook punk rock and actually manage to lock into some pretty catchy grooves here and there, notably on songs like "Dismantle Me", "Beat Your Heart Out", and the title track.

The problem with Coral Fang lies in two things - Dalle's sometimes unlistenable sneering vocal reminiscent of early Hole (a mighty low during grunge's early days), and songs that smack of a misdirected attempt at meaningfulness. Coral Fang would work far better if there was a greater appreciation for black humour or at least a little bit of irony. While I can appreciate Dalle wanting to raise the bar on her songwriting, she overshoots on much of Coral Fang and just ends up sounding like a brat on songs like "Love Is Paranoid" and "Die On A Rope". Think along the lines of Henry Rollins' first forays into the spoken word forum when you thought to yourself, "What the heck made you think anyone would care, Henry?" Here's a bit of irony - in Rollins' case, plenty cared as he launched into an alternate career of spoken word tours. I guess it's possible that Coral Fang might be seen as some sort of groundbreaking or career-defining testimonial (can you say Live Though This?).

Relevant by default, I guess.

(Since many seem to want to latch on to this Rancid vs. Distillers thing, let me clarify that I....don't like Rancid either, or Queens Of The Stone Age for that matter. Grrr.)

4.5