Nothing if not prolific, this is Die Pretty’s fifth album and sadly the last they will make as an Oxford band. Seems that like those other local gothic noise warriors Passion Play, they are moving to the States where their sound might reach a wider audience. It’s a shame Die Pretty have never fitted into the Oxford scene, since they bring an element, albeit contrived, of glamour, sleaziness and downright lunacy that seems to be missing from the current conveyor belt of indentikit punk/grunge bands.

Whether Andi Slut really is a complete loony tune or just a clever image manipulator, his music rarely misses the spot. It’s often chaotic, sometimes it sounds like it’s been recorded and mixed inside a barrel going over Victoria Falls, but the tinny, hissy industrial goth slime that oozes from each Die Pretty CD seems to breathe with more soul and spirit than most bands. Count the influences if you like: Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson on the one hand, Jesus and Mary Chain and Sisters Of Mercy on the other. There’s no hiding them and no desire to so. They’re the sort of band you feel ought to be cracking skulls in the background during the obligatory bar scenes in films like The Crow or Strange Days, mixing it up with the denizens of the US underground like Thrill Kill Cult or KFMDM. ‘Psychotic Revenge’ lacks some of the power and menace of its predecessor, 2001’s ‘Ultraviolet’, and feels patchy and rushed at times, but at its best like on the crawling `Bastard Son’, or the trashy, punked-up `Come To The Front’, it still makes you want to wrap yourself up in tight rubber clothing and cavort round your room with a strobe light flashing at maximum speed. And if you’ve never felt like that, maybe you’ve been going to the wrong tea dances. So anyway, good luck with the American dream, boys, we’ll miss you.

Nick Courtney