X is Loaded - 'Raw Nerve' (Music For Nations) Released 05/07/04

The cover of X is Loaded’s debut album, Raw Nerve, depicts a pair of hands tearing at an opened wound, as if to expose the muscle and sinew within. Presumably it is meant to suggest that the group’s music is visceral and bloody, while at the same time emphasizing that the lyrics and vocals are emotionally exposed. Clearly this mix of power and vulnerability is what X is Loaded are aiming for.

Sadly, though, it’s an ancient trick (at least as old as The Stooges) and one that X is Loaded handle particularly badly. To this end, X is Loaded initially choose to flex their limited muscular ability. The first three tracks are all, loosely, rockers. Well, they’re at least loud and fast. But they lack any kind of discernible attitude or dynamic sense. Like recent chart stars (and embarrassing style-mag goths) The Rasmus, this is just old-fashioned, and particularly tedious, indie-metal hiding behind a flash production.

And screaming at every opportunity doesn’t necessarily make you give off an air of sensitivity. Bruce Dickinson used to scream a lot, and “sensitivity” and “Iron Maiden” are rarely words which appear in sentences together.

Elsewhere, attempts to get in touch with their gentler side, such as “The Start of Everything” and “Last Chance”, result in some of the wettest indie you are ever likely to hear. Perhaps if X is Loaded didn’t take themselves quite so seriously (because very few people do take themselves as seriously as X is Loaded … perhaps Muse) they might be able to create something approaching entertainment. Sadly, their preoccupation with their own navels seems to negate this possibility.