Meet the Hives: svengalis of swagger, cocky commanders-in-chief of small-town big-time RAWK, demented preachers of "punkrock music avec kaboom". Veni Vidi Vicious is their nihilistic message to you. Clocking in at just under 30 minutes it is gut-pummeling rock'n'roll of the take-no-prisoners variety. Its scratchy guitars and rapid-fire rhythms punctuated by vocalist Howlin' Pelle Almqvist's snotty histrionics land somewhere between the Stooges, the Pixies and everything else within a decade's radius.

"Declare Guerre Nucleaire" pops and thrashes like an epileptic mod on a Vespa of the Apocalypse, while "Statecontrol" and "Inspection Wise 1999" are jammed with demented Iggy-style bellowing. "Hate to Say I Told You So" (which many will recognize from their UK debut compilation Your New Favourite Band) sounds like a classic the instant you hear it, and delivers a head-jerking bass line break at exactly the right moment. The Hives may be aping styles that have already gone before them, but they do it with unapologetic glee and reckless abandon that make it all their own. You need this band in your life. --Leslie Gilotti