THE ROCKET DOLLS

Recently, whilst putting a wish-list of guitar effects together for my new pedal board, I contemplated the merits of the talk box. Of course, Frampton made it popular so it could have some retro cool. But, Bon Jovi kept reminding me how awfully dated it can be. So, ultimately I decided not to buy one. This leads me in a rather laboured way to the opening track of The Rocket Dolls' EP 'Frame'. Sorry lads, the talk box sounds shite. That aside, we have some powerful post-grunge metal. Think a less reliant on cars and westerns version of Metallica circa the 1990s. Kind of. Opener 'Frame' doesn't do much for me even if we do ignore the aforementioned effect. However, things improve from track two onwards. 'Broken' is as caustic a lament as you'll hear. Very Puddle of Mudd. But in a good way. The band is made up of the Sultan of Swing's son, Ben Knopfler, on drums, ex-The Bridges (now the delightful The Enemy) Steve Golder on bass, and the terribly-moniker Nikki Smash on guitar and vocals. Produced by Ace of the quite awful Skunk Anansie, the resultant noise is really rather pleasant, if dangerously close to clipping at times. Back to the songs, track three 'Bleeding the Shame' is catchy enough, if lacking a bit of character. 'Delirium' closes the EP in fine style, with more acerbic riffage, reminding somewhat of the much-missed Kerbdog, with a solo that would make Buckethead proud. All in all, this is a smart debut, and I hope they can find success with it. They're touring soon with the mediocre CodeJAK, so turn up for The Rocket Dolls at least.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Self-released

EP

FRAME

Review by Steve Cowan

RUNNING TIME:

15:14

RELEASE DATE:

25th Jan 2010

TRACK LISTING

1) Frame
2) Broken
3) Bleeding the Shame
4) Delirium

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

UK

"...powerful post-grunge metal."