Spike 1000

Although Spike 1000 is San Francisco-based, they have embraced their place under the Bakersfield umbrella. A quote from Korn's Jonathan Davis is proudly displayed as the one of few selling points on the back of the advance disc. The truth is that if there is prettiness in Shannon Harris's vocals, it is lost on Waste of Skin. Most of the record sees her swaying from androgyny to milliseconds of kick-ass female brute (like at the very end of "Make Me Suffer"), but overall she is sitting in the middle, with power but very little range. However, the more I listen to this disc the more I respect Spike 1000. Like Sub Pop-era L7, this band brings a little estrogen to this mainly male-dominated musical movement. The songs are written with the same aggression that you hear in Korn, Godsmack and the Deftones, and the rest of the band certainly doesn't hold back for Harris - she can play with the big boys. Even the fact that this group moved out of the musical incubator of the moment, Bakersfield, shows some guts.