With his first solo album, Teenage Snuff Film, Roland S Howard unabashedly opens up the diseased chambers of his dark heart on a record transcendent with vengeance. Brooding back-up is provided by Mick Harvey on drums and Brian Hooper on bass with melancholic strings and organ, but the real violence is inflicted by Howard's pained lyrics and howling guitar. Opener Dead Radio calmly weighs up the yin and yang of a long-term relationship: "you're bad for me like cigarettes / you're good for me like coca-cola," Howard pines as his guitar curls like smoke around memories fond and foul. The pent-up rage simmers on Breakdown, as the singer "chokes on this heart of hate" while his snarled-up guitar raises up like a tsunami behind him. She Cried strips the pop sheen from the shangri-las original, leaving a tapestry of raw emotions. Exit Everything is a an epic death trip sung to a suitably apocalyptic arrangement. "i'm a misanthropic man," Howard finally admits on the closing track, Sleep Alone. But by then it's too late. the hate has taken hold as music roars around him, unleashed like a terrifying force of nature that inevitably leads to human devastation.
