01. Radioactive Misery
02. Body Blow
03. Bullshit & Backstabbing
04. Hated
05. Motherfuckers (Like You)
06. Werewolves On Blackstreet
07. Spit On Me
08. The Unlucky Minority
09. Would You Love A Creature
10. Too Bad For You
11. Drag Me To The Grave

It's always a bittersweet victory seeing a band you've been following since their underground days get signed to a renowned label. Yes, it's nice to see good musicians finally make it, and you know it will be a hell of a lot easier to get your hands on their releases, but the good always comes with the bad. No, I'm not talking about band-waggon jumping fans, that's just your irrational elitist side talking. What I'm talking about is that feeling like they lost something somewhere along the way. In Sister's case, it's raw aggression.

So for those of you unfamiliar with Sister, they are part of the whole new-wave-of-Swedish-glam-metal movement that started a couple years back. With their killer debut EP Deadboys Making Noise, they really proved to be a much more rabid version of their contemporaries (Hardcore Superstar, Crashdïet...). They had a sound that was equal parts melody & aggression. Think Wednesday 13/Murderdolls, but a step to the arena-rock end of the spectrum, and you've got Sister's sound. First hearing them years ago, I knew it was only a matter of time before they got signed. Lo and behold, Metal Blade picked them up and right out of the gate their sound is already becoming more polished. Not in a good way.

Ok, ok, fair enough, the heart of the song writing is still there, but it's another one of those styles in which it's all about presentation. I'm not sure how many times I need to repeat this, but if punk is a key element in your music, you need the grit. It needs to have that somewhat self-destructive feel to it. Sister have done the exact opposite of just that. Taken an album that could have been the most dangerous sounding album of the year, and pushed it into raunchy, lack-lustre glam rock territory. Hated is an ok album I suppose, it's just discouraging when you see a band lose their shine right off the bat.