If you are of a similar age to the UR massive and from the same country then your hair may well have started to tease itself into former glories at the mere mention of the name 'Ragdolls'. Sorry to disappoint you but the Ragdolls featured here are a Swedish outfit formed initially in 2007, not the Welsh glamsters who featured Robin Guy (Rachel Stamp/Tigertailz) on drums. And this is a serious case of Boogeymen over Bogiez men as this band out of Varberg replace the cock with shock and the rock with rot.

Formed by frontman Vikki Violence four years ago, Ragdolls found local notoriety with the song 'All Emo Kids Must Die' before the vocalist found himself bandmate-less and searching for undead cool fresh blood to flesh out his dream, actually nightmare, band, digging up drummer Broken Bridget, bassist Chx Cruzifix and lead guitarist Damaged L along the way.

'Dead Girls Don't Say No' doesn't waste time in planting its demon seed in you. After a typically spooktakular intro, the album kicks in with first song proper 'Beautiful Homicide' and the Murderdolls/Wednesday 13 influence hits you in the face like the fire extinguisher in 'Irreversible'. Granted, the W13 thing is pretty much a given where modern horror metal bands are concerned but this is really near to the knuckle. Don't let that put you off checking this band out though, as they certainly offer more for fans of the darker side of sleaze rock.

'Shut Up And Drink' sounds like something from 'The Power And The Glory Hole' from Faster Pussycat, and not just because it is throws up echoes of their cover of the Betty Blowtorch classic 'Shut Up And Fuck'. There's (perhaps obviously) a large spattering of Alice Cooper hanging over proceedings and Z-grade movie dialogue pierces the grime in prime Rob Zombie fashion. There are some great songs here though; the Ed Gein paean 'House Of Horror', the punk metal racket of 'I'm A Werewolf' and the distorted death march that is 'Gravedigger's Dance'.

But only the most blinkered beast would double-dare to deny the level of reverence that Wednesday 13 is held in by this band. If the Murderdolls hadn't awoken from their eight-year coma, then Ragdolls might have gotten away with it...but they did...so they won't.

Still better than 666% of the other trash parading as rock music these days though. In fact, I could happily listen to shit like this all day long....if my casket could take a headphone jack, of course.

www.myspace.com/ragdollsvbg