Some Girls

With the press release accompanying Heaven's Pregnant Teens painting it as an album of "unrelenting musical psychosis" adding "new dimensions of brutality," I was a bit apprehensive of this latest offering by San Diego hardcore quintet Some Girls (featuring members of the Locust, Give Up the Ghost, and other aggro outfits). Bracing for an eardrum-scraping wall of pain, I was surprised to find the 13 tracks familiarly catchy in an old-school punk manner. Many songs sound akin to something you'd hear while tooling around a mid-'80s thrash pit; "You'll Be Happier With Lower Standards" brought to mind Bad Brains. The standout cut here is a cover: a Flipper-ish take on Public Image Ltd.'s 1978 screed "Religion II." The disc terminates with the relentless nine-minute pummel of "Deathface," at the end of which singer Wesley Eisold yells the word "ape" 177 times. It's compelling at the very least, and not as annoying as you'd think. While Heaven's Pregnant Teensresembles much that has come before, the guys in Some Girls do their thing exceedingly well, and they probably kick unholy butt live. Plus guitarist Charles Rowell has a cool last name.