Well I’ll be damned, here’s a band whose name actually describes them. I’m pretty sure that no one in Poison the Well actually goes around poisoning wells. I’m equally certain that no one in the Toasters is a useful kitchen appliance. But have no fear, the members of this band are actually angry, and one of them is actually an amputee. I didn’t really know what to expect from this release, but knowing it was on Zeke’s label piqued my interest. Upon further investigation I noticed that Zeke member Donny Paycheck played drums on a few of these tracks.

The Angry Amputees play a gritty brand of pop punk with a few aggressive tendencies. This would just be an average, run of the mill band, but there is one standout quality: the powerful female vocals. Lead vocalist Stacey Dee has that rare ability to make you feel what she is feeling through her singing. The poppier tunes on here just make you want to nod along, but the angry tracks make you want to break a bottle over someone’s head. That’s really where this band shines, their angry, fist pumping anthems. It’s a shame that there are only a couple songs of this nature on this disc. “No Mercy” is easily the standout here, the song builds up steam from its melodic start until it reaches a frenzy pitch, all the while Dee belts out the lyrics with some genuine venom.

The lyrics are pretty sophomoric, with lines like “Well, it may be that you can’t read. Who gives a fuck if you’re dyslexic?” not being uncommon. But I guess any band that sings about George W. Bush smoking crack is ok in my book. At least they show us that they have some common decency in the song “Bad Luck”, as Dee sings “It’s not like I’ve upset anyone, or kicked anyone’s dog.”

If you like raw pop punk that will remind you of a time when the genre’s name wasn’t synonymous with “total shit”, then you should check this band out. It’s kind of ironic that the ballsiest pop punk CD in some time comes from a band in which half the members are female. It will be interesting to see where they go from here. The poppy tracks are adequate, but I wish this band would further explore their aggressive side

No Mercy MP3