CD: XO Artist: Leathermouth Label: Epitaph Records Rating: 3.5/5 Best Song: This Song Is About Being Attacked By Monsters Reviewer: Bobby Gorman

XO will do well simply because Leathermouth is the side project of My Chemical Romance's Frank Iero. Right there, that will garner the band a lot of fans. However, strict MCR fans may not be ready for an abrasive record like XO. Instead, in an odd turn for the worse, those who are ready for a record like this and would thoroughly enjoy it may actually pass on it because it is Frank Iero's side project.

But really, the fact that it is Frank Iero's band is just some extraneous information. As soon as the first second of 5th Period Massacre plays through, you know that there isn't a slight similarity to My Chem on the record. If you wanted to stretch you could say there's some moments that are distantly related to I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (see I Am Going To Kill The President Of The United States of America); but even that is stretching it.

Instead, XO is exactly how Iero described it: raw, confrontational punk rock. The ten track record passes by in twenty three minutes and is filled of eighties hardcore punk rock. Heavily distorted and heavily disjointed guitar riffs bounce off each other overtop a staccato drum beat. It is chaos and anger with industrial sounding noises and guitar squeals that sound like sirens. Iero's vocals are raw and spastic, spitting out lyrics of mistrust, anger, rebellion and death with fury and intensity.

Throughout the record you hear flourishes of Refused sounding hardcore -particularly in the vocal department as Iero seems to be taking a giant cue from Dennis Lyxzén (This Song Is About Being Attacked By Monsters). But there are older influences in there too, like Black Flag, SS Decontrol, Battalion of Saints and Jerry's Kids; they've all left their mark on their record.

When punk was young it was hard, fast and angry. Leathermouth bring you back to that time with furious music, incomprehensible vocals with a venomous touch and boiling anger. It's definitely not for everyone, but anyone with a penchant for eighties hardcore will be smart to check this out. It is raw, confrontational punk rock; with an emphasis on raw.