Hanin Elias

IN FLAMES

(Digital Hardcore)

Lolita Storm

G.F.S.U.

(Digital Hardcore)

Digital Hardcore’s female faction comes to the fore on Hanin Elias’s In Flames and Lolita Storm’s G.F.S.U. The German label, whose flagship band Atari Teenage Riot set the Digital Hardcore tone with their mix of techno DJing, sampled metal guitars, and hardcore thrash beats, has never prized subtlety. And Elias’s first full-length, a collection of her solo work from compilations and singles plus new material, is no exception. She screams her way through a vengeful set of dense techno tirades that could be about anybody, but the liner notes and between-song samples reveal that sexual politics are the common thread. Although Elias is dead set on getting even with the other gender, she doesn’t do much more than shout out militaristic nonsense and clichés like “I’m so in rage go back into the cage/The cage of life.” She fares better when she gives her voice a rest and lets the sounds speak for themselves, as on the trip-hoppy “Outback.” On the atmospheric “You Will Never Get Me,” she even calms down enough to sing a lullaby to her oppressor.

Lolita Storm are three female vocalists and a programmer who are at their best when they’re at their most energetic — which is most of the time on G.F.S.U. Quick quiet-to-loud changes, speedcore breakbeats, and crass cockney cheerleader chants are the main ingredients here. The objective seems to be to turn the tables in the gender war by treating men as sex objects, especially on “Hot Lips,” “Wet Pants,” “Meat Injection,” and “Slave Boy.” The songs are short, bratty, catchy — and best of all, they have a sense of humor. In the end, that’s what makes Lolita Storm so much more palatable than Elias.

-- Matt Parish