It's The Lipstick On Your Teeth

It’s quite a long name to say out loud, but this band doesn’t want to go easy on you. Or their fans. Or even themselves, for that matter. They’re noisy and hit hard. Their approach – combining heavily distorted guitars with computer noise and robotic grooves – isn’t completely new, but right now, in a time when you often just want to lash out at all the people making self-punishing decisions, this sound feels like a necessity.

The band name actually seems more innocent than the four-piece sounds, as it’s more like a punch in your face. The only colour in the video to ‘Skintrade’ comes from the red blood on all of the musicians. Blood reminiscent of much of the imagery of the famous local art movement from the 1970s, Wiener Aktionismus, where body-perforating performances became the artwork itself.

But Michelle … she can handle this. She sings lines like “You’re dead inside!” and “I want your skin”. She boils down brutal love and summer suicide into deep, cutting lyrics, often going beyond the digital hardcore music with screams and shrieks. The band already released an EP in 2015, but has transformed quite a bit since then. Whereas they sounded like horror pop back then, they take a much heavier, more electronic and direct approach on their upcoming debut album, released via one of Austria’s most important indie labels.

Live, the band features a classic setup with drums, bass, guitar and most of all, a frontwoman who is full of anger and angst.