Never ones to be too far from controversy, Clawfinger do little to help themselves with new release "Hate Yourself With Style". Featuring songs such as "The Faggot in You" and "Right to Rape" - this funk-metal crossover crew from Sweden have excelled themselves yet again by putting the world to rights regarding ultra-sensitive, no-go issues - with all the delicacy and charm of an autistic, epileptic octopus - having a fit with a mallet in shop full of crystal ornaments.

Which is entirely a shame, as within this album you will find some very catchy hooks, and some really deep, fat (or is that “Phat?”) guitar riffs to get your teeth into. There are even some slap-bass lines here that would make Fieldy himself blush. It’s just the sort of thing you could go bananas to in a drunken state, in some rock club, moshing like a total loony. Some songs also have a very likeable “sing-along” pop-metal structure - with choruses that wouldn’t sound out of place amongst the likes of LINKIN PARK, STABBING WESTWARD et al. This is particularly evident in tracks “Dirty Lies” & “Best and the Worst” – easily the highest points of the album.

The problem lies in the utter lyrical diarrhea that manages to destroy anything else likeable about “Hate Yourself With Style”. Indeed, at some points during repeated listens I felt the undeniable urge to gag lead-singer “Zak Tell”. Then perhaps tie him up, set light to him, and throw him down a mine shaft. If the song lyrics aren’t just picking words that make rhyming couplets regardless of whether they makes sense, then they are so arse-numbingly bad, and inadvertently offensive that it gets to the point where it just makes you groan (eg. “Why can’t you understand - it’s not something a person can plan! It’s not like you wake up and get out of bed – and decide to fall in love with a man!”)

While the song “Right to Rape” sounds hideous – it is in fact (from what I could gather) supposed to be some sort of social commentary about how women get the blame unfairly for so many rape cases. However, it’s handled in such a tactless, ham-fisted, un-researched way - the whole song is totally cringe-worthy - and you can’t help but wish they would leave things like this alone (especially if the grey matter isn’t there to tackle it properly). I’m not even sure what they were trying to say with “The Faggot In You” – more than likely whatever it was, they probably shouldn’t have said it in the first place. Oh, and they also feel the need to tell us “God is Dead” with the album closer. Thanks guys, we hadn’t been told that before.

So, the long and the short of it is, if this album were an instrumental then it would be getting a 7.5/10. The guitar work is sledge-hammer sweet, and the production is faultless. Sadly, despite these plusses it’s overshadowed by far too many helpings of ham-fisted, lyrically astounding no-brainers that are totally detrimental to the music. If they were purposely trying to be dumb (Bloodhound Gang) or even shockingly offensive (Anal C**t) then it would be more understandable – the problem is it just comes across as either A) They don’t have a very good grasp on the English Language or B) They didn’t go to school for long enough.

Standout Tracks:  Dirty Lies, Best & Worst, Right to Rape (for the wrong reasons!)