Wowsers! Grab your ear muffs, this is heavy stuff. The Rocket Dolls are a rollicking good old fashioned rock trio from Brighton who are intent upon assaulting your senses via drums, guitars, and screaming vocals. These young lads make a ferocious noise, don’t listen to this too loud on your ipod if seated next to anyone with a delicate disposition on the bus, it might seriously scare them.

The Rocket Dolls are Nikki Smash on lead vocals and guitar, Steve Golder on bass, and Ben Knopfler with stick duties. As a unit they are tight and complement each other well for the task in hand, and that task is to bash the listener over the head with [inset side=right]...this is a fist pumping, hell raising slab of good old fashioned rock and roll...[/inset]heavy concrete riffage and slabs of distorted noise. These guys basically know their musical heritage; it involves Kiss, Black Sabbath, Motley Crue, Nirvana, and more recent acts like Finger Eleven and Silverchair. They have apparently built up a dedicated live following in and around London over the past 18 months which has led to them releasing FRAME, a four track debut EP.

The opening title track FRAME opens with a burst of squealing guitars and a riff so heavy it should be given an extra slot on the periodic table of elements. Despite the distortion and heaviness of the verse the chorus is actually very catchy and likeable, so it’s a good choice for opening song of the EP. The song does have post grunge leanings of bands like Finger Eleven and Silverchair, so if you like your rock more Atlantic in origins then this is probably the band for you.

The rest of the EP mirrors the formula of the opening track; with heavy riffs galore, rasping, angry vocals, pounding drums and bass and some nice guitar moments in between. Sometimes it feels a bit repetitive, BROKEN uses a guitar part similar to the track FRAME, and also BLEEDING THE SHAME again is guilty of using a familiar verse, angry chorus, back to verse pattern. If you like that structure then fine, but anyone wanting a bit of variety or depth might feel unsatisfied. Closing track DELIRIUM rounds things off with a bit of style, the chorus is just as catchy and melodic as that of FRAME and reminds the listener what the Rocket Dolls are capable of with a cool Tom Morello like guitar solo at the end.

So all in all this is a fist pumping, hell raising slab of good old fashioned rock and roll, it’s music to mosh to and spill snakebite everywhere. It has been done before, but these lads are new to the game and need time to develop their own sound and song writing style. They could have done with dropping the two middle tracks on this EP that are a bit repetitive and samey, and at times the production is a little too polished , but overall this is a good effort from a young band who can make improvements and develop themselves.