The Distillers' lead singer Brody Dalle, who also plays guitar, sounds more like a younger version of Hole's Courtney Love or even one of the Veruca Salt girls, with her deep, raspy voice telling the stories of straight-out controversy in American adolescent society. Dalle, an Australian native who moved to Los Angeles when she was 17, started The Distillers to get out her culture shock and angst into music for the new age of punk. The band's third release, "Coral Fang," has just the right collection of songs that will put them on the map. It is chock full of angry rock, punk tunes and harsh lyrics about the very American issue of guns for an Australian, but as she said in an interview, "It is so ingrained in the culture. It's an American icon, how can you deny it? Nowhere else in the world are guns so important. Something just fascinates me about them, that something so ugly, something that can do so much fucking damage, could be so, you know - it's like it's almost a religion."

Beginning as a band of three, Dalle, drummer Andy Granelli, formerly of The Nerve Agents and bassist Ryan Sinn did not comprise the original line-up that recorded first and second albums. Their self-titled debut featured drummer Mat Young and bassist Kim Fuelleman and Rose Casper on guitar to complement Dalle. The second record, "Sing Sing Death House" also did not make it into most American homes. Dalle felt a change was in order and asked Granelli and Sinn to join. They were almost complete.

After a year of touring, they finally acquired the final piece of the puzzle of their band in the form of guitarist Tony Bradley. They were complete and ready to wake up the music industry. And they have. "Drain the Blood," the first single released off their album, already had its video debut on MTV on Oct. 1. They also gained notoriety when they performed on the Lollapalooza tour this summer.

"Our music has matured on this album...though we haven't, we're still a punk band, we still play punk music and we still hate you," said Dalle.
One of the best songs on this album is the new single and opener, "Drain the Blood." It is driven by hard, deep tunes and crazy lyrics such as, "I'm lying on shattered earth /The kind that likes to restrict your breath." The great guitar and fantastic beats compliment Brody's voice. While harsh in and of itself, her voice has a very distinct quality about it that makes one want to listen to the rest of the album to see what else she has in store.

Some other great songs include, "Hall of Mirrors," "Dismantle Me" and "Love is Paranoid." After such a frontal assault, you get the slightly calmer sounds of "The Hunger," and "For Tonight You Are Only Here To Know" to soothe - as much as a punk band can soothe -your palate as a listener. The combination of these two moods creates a very solid album. The hardness of her voice and how the guitar riffs can just cut through your ears straight to your brain make this record classic in the world of punk. Her screaming can remind one of Marilyn Manson in concert, while her softer voice could almost be a punk version of Sheryl Crow with its hoarseness.

The last song on the record, "Death Sex," places sex and guns in the same genre with the lyrics, "Shoot your gun, baby / I come undone / I came so hard / I'd do it and do it again." Its head-banger drums makes one want to start a mosh pit and get freaky all that the same time, and the long guitar solo just makes you stop and listen and wish you were there live.
For all the great music however, the record came in truly unsettling packaging. Pictures of women cut open, decapitated, masturbating, images of guns, trees and razor blades, and everything in red, white and black is very graphic and I am almost glad I didn't flip through it before listening to the music.

If you are a hardcore punk lover, this album is definitely for you. If not, it doesn't matter to them: They are in it for the music, as Andy explains on their Web site:
"(We) remembered that punk actually still is cool ... as long as it only consists of Black Flag, the Ramones, the Circle Jerks, TSOL, the Stooges, Devo, and Credence, and has nothing to do with clothes, or bumming change, or gossip. Thanks.