Considering that their four members were key players in previous sonic terrorists like Daisy Chainsaw, Transvision Vamp and Head, QUEEN ADREENA could be mistaken for some low-grade supergroup.
To sneer, though, would be a grave error, as QUEEN ADREENA are an altogether steelier and - without pulling punches - psychotic outfit: within hand-biting distance of both punk and metal, whilst retaining a penchant for the unpredictable that (when allied to Katie Jane Garside's unearthly screaming) never falls far short of scary.
"Drink Me" is actually the second QA full-length offering (folowing up 2000's "Taxidermy"), and - at its' best - soon ensures your goosebumps are rising good and proper. Indeed, tracks like the opening "Pretty Like Drugs" and "Siamese Almeida" are full-on, suffocating attacks, with Garside's vocals gagging you with pillows while guitarist Crispin Gray's riffs cosh you round the head like a rejuvenated Ronnie Biggs.
To follow the old cliche, though, when she's bad, Katie Jane can be...well, totally unapproachable...and at times, "Drink Me" can be excruciating. No matter how much of a fuss tracks like "Kitty Collar Tight" and "A Bed Of Roses" make, they're ultimately revealed as little more than wind and piss: a migraine waiting to burst open.
Thankfully, there's a subtler side to Queen Adreena, too, and when they explore this element of their collective psyche, I'm more than willing to sit up and listen. Indeed, tracks like "Razorblade Sky" and the warped "Sleeping Pill" are coiled to strike with Katie Jane coming on like Bjork mugging Beth Gibbons while the boys smoulder and rumble. And then there's "My Silent Undoing", which finds Garside's ultra-spooky tiny child warble embraced by a drop-dead beautiful music-box-in-a-snowstorm backing track.
|
QUEEN ADREENA are certainly a force to be reckoned with on occasion. Morgan Nicholls (ex-Senseless Things bassist and interesting solo artist in his own right) and Ken Thomas are good choices to fill the producers' chairs (not surprisingly, Orson Wajih achieves a terrific bass sound), and when they get QA to pull in the same direction on the aforementioned tracks, or on more expansive 'rock' tunes (term used loosely), they can impress when shifting up several gears.
And therein lies the rub. For although QUEEN ADREENA possess a creepy, voyeuristic quality, there are times when they try too hard and end up sounding like an updated, metallised Bow Wow Wow. "Drink Me" is by no means an ineffective elixir, but - currently at least - its' ingredients don't add up to the delicious, addictive love potion I'd hoped to guzzle.
|
