Damnzal have remixed, repackaged, and re-released their debut album for the overseas market, and what a treat that is. The 13 tracks of glam meets stressed metal meets teeth grinding, head banging, pants staining rock might too much for some but it won’t be enough for others. Whatever people liked, or didn’t like, the first time around is back bigger and better (badder) than before. Bigger boots, bigger hair, bigger production, bigger everything. All wrapped up in the band’s unpublished credo which I am guessing is, “the more people we piss off, the better”. Welcome to the world of Damnzal which is reminiscent of Bizarro World, where things aren’t quite what they seem or even what they want to be.

Damnzal have a tendency to be over the top and for some reason I think of them as a band of Bizarro Avril Lavignes. It is immediately obvious the Damnzal women are nothing like the Earth Avril, but I am talking about Bizarro Avril. Imagine if Avril had talent, sex appeal, and a nasty streak where she is more likely to rub napalm in to you than massage oil. Then put three of these Bizarro Avrils in the Plasmatics and turn the intensity up until it melts everything in close proximity. And then have Damnzal’s female triumvirate backed by a children scaring Bizarro Leatherface on drums. All together they create something heavy and dangerous and intoxicatingly seductive.

The original album sounded like it was recorded in the a vacuum of hell while the new CD is more polished. The first version of the eponymous album was treated as a whole and the end result was blur of earth trembling destruction. The songs on the re-release have been approached individually in an effort to tame them and make them more accessible. The original unrelenting barrage has been controlled, but only a little, to highlight the tunes amongst the noise. Even the demo tracks have been overhauled to give them the fullness in sound they deserve. It’s a sexed up, rocked up, sleaze fest on a little silver platter.

The Damnzal women are the women your parents warned you about. As the lyrics to Sex Slave say. ‘I am the chick your mum hates, want you to be my sex slave’. The album is mostly about hate and sex. The band’s image and sound have been cleaned up for their overseas assault, but still there is something delightfully seedy about them. The music charts may be full of overly preened, beautiful people and songs of love and devotion, but that has little to do with the reality we live in. Damnzal live in the dark underbelly of our society, in Sin City where ‘you are gonna be my destiny, you are gonna be my fantasy’. They do throw in a cover of the classic Cherry Bomb to make you feel a little safer. But that feeling of warmth does not last long.

Damnzal will chew you up, spit you out and then stomp on your genitals, and you will enjoy it.

www.myspace.com/damnzal