Who knows what evil lurks within the hearts of men?

Jacob Sundermeyer, that's who. As singer for The Evil Queens, he's tapped into his most misanthropic instincts, spelling out fuck-offs, detailing malicious intents and casting a penetrating light on the dark sides of love and life with furious precision. With the three albums the Queens have already notched and the forthwith Lovesong Werewolves, he's given voice to the thoughts we all have but are usually too polite to mutter. Am I evil? Why yes, yes I am.

Like four feral cats thrown in a bag, The Evil Queens have coughed up a baker's dozen fuzzballs entangled with pigfuck, stoner rock and grunge noise. Lovesong is a tinderbox for the Queens' incendiary sounds: Sundermeyer and Mike Eckhardt's guitars grate against each other in a spark-flying melee, tumbling atop the seismic rumble and groove created by bassist Eric Hinterscheid and drummer George Hondroulis. "Lions of May" is a blast of dry heat and warning; "Year of the Cretin" is a modern parable of Biblical revenge latched to meaty hooks; and "America America" is a coming-of-age indictment set between blood-boiled riffs. But those tracks are just the tip of this iceberg. The album never lets up through its 40 minutes. Drop your virtual needle down anywhere and you're gonna hear a man at the end of his tether and a band at the top of its top-shelf potency.

Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, the Queens were borne out of the remains of Our Flesh Party, who had become fixtures on the local scene (i.e. the string of dive bars spaced along the city's main drag) by the time Sundermeyer, Eckhardt and Hondroulis graduated high school. After recruiting former Behemoth guitarist Hinterscheid for four-string duty, the band hit the ground running in 2002 and self-released their self-titled debut concurrently to playing out for the first time. A second album, Dos, followed less than a year later. In 2005, the band released First It Boils, Then It Spills on the short-lived Addison Records, playing the CMJ Music Marathon and other dates out of town to widen their fan base.

Lovesong Werewolves is the Evil Queens first record for Sunken Treasure Records. Like the bands' other albums, it was produced by Jon Chinn, who has manned the board for the New Bomb Turks, The Sun and many of Columbus' other finest. It's the culmination of many years of toil and trouble and nights spent staring into darkness. It's the sound of rock 'n' roll beat to a pulp, the howling accompaniment to a bad moon rising.

Take heed, dear listener, take heed.