Valet Park This

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More About

• Kat Bjelland

When you're young, you've had plenty of people telling you what you should be, but you haven't had much time to internalize those messages.

That said, Valet Park This could have been an all-girl emo-core or crust-punk band had it followed recent trends. Instead, the group's four-song eponymous release is the work of women who couldn't decide whether to be metal, punk, glam-goth or some kind of edgier indie rock — so they became all of that and somehow managed to make the unlikely blend resonate. Bunny-vil's sneeringly sassy singing recalls the Red Aunts, and the primal screaming is reminiscent of Kat Bjelland's days with Babes in Toyland. The death-metalesque sub-vocalizing isn't as effective, but it's easily overwritten by the intense forward momentum of each track.