Playing with Batusis and citing the likes of Black Flag is always going to prick my finely tuned ears up. Philly's Workhorse III are, funnily enough, a three piece from Philly led by Lisa Flynn who follows in a long line and ever increasing group of female front persons who are able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the gents in the field of no-nonsense punk rock and metal. 

On first impressions this mix of metal, punk and power pop has me a little confused, some songs more metal than others which are more punk but delivered well with some "woo-hoo" backing vocals. 'Let It Begin' kicks things off with a straight down the line three minutes of Rawk! It's a solid outing in fairness with some roughed up diamonds and plenty of meat and veg riffing like the Sabbath-ish 'Revolution Blood Machine' and 'Down So Long'.

The songs that work best for me are the more punky tracks rather than the metal edged ones.  'Die Tonight' is a pretty decent mid-paced romp that marries the punk/metal crossover really well. The only downside for me would be the inclusion of 'Workhorse I' which is a pretty short (granted) instrumental workout that sounds like something they would play to check the levels in a soundcheck....but that's me and my general loathing of all things instrumental.

Highlight  is the uptempo 'Infect The Masses' with some quality lyrics, especially hearing them come out of a potty mouthed lady (quite refreshing to be honest, you go girl!) but if there were more songs like this rather than the not so uptempo metal ones they might well be onto something. I guess seeing the guys wearing a Venom and a Black Flag t-shirt on the inner sleeve sort of tells the listener where these guys are at. Worth a listen, no doubt about it; will appeal to the more metal amongst us even if album closer 'What You Wanted' reminded me of Ms Cobain ne Love and her band Hole which shows another side of The Workhorse III and it has some Cheetah Chrome patented guitar solos which are always welcome in my house.

www.myspace.com/theworkhorsethree