Listening to "My Love Is Dead" is a bit like stepping back in time to that brief period in the mid-nineties when every gig came with a good chance of seeing a half-naked man in elaborate make-up playing a weird looking keyboard on stage. For while THE PHYSICISTS are most definitely an Industrial Metal band at heart, they sound an awful lot like all those acts who supported MARILYN MANSON when he was still threatening.

Based out of Finland, these four musicians have a couple of good tracks up their sleeves but for the most part, they recall the likes of POWERMAN 5000 or ORGY and feel like a band that exist to fill the gaps in a Cybergoth DJ's playlist. Their music is a chaotic amalgamation of electronic effects and raging Metal, but it also has one eye on mainstream acceptance and isn't entirely convincing.

On the plus side, it's riddled with enough depravity and catchy choruses to appeal to anyone that enjoys stomping round dancefloors in New Rock boots waving plastic dreads about. The likes of "Call Of The Underworld" and "Travel Song" for instance are offbeat slabs of mechanised indulgence and "Sundae" is a completely bizarre opener. "Wayne Newton Hullabaloo" is insanely catchy and could have got them a solid rotation on MTV2 had it been released in 2001 and "Fucked" has its moments too, even the weird accordion intro.

At the more cringe-worthy end of the spectrum though is "Being Normal." This one is a clear ode to all the freaks and malcontents of the world, with lyrics that'll remind any former Nu-Metal kid of being called a 'greebo' by teenagers on council estates. However, it's also etched in desperation, as if they're trying to appeal to anyone that feels even slightly ostracised by popular society. This is music that wants you to think it'll shoot the entire school up any day now but still does all its chores when mum asks and only skim read The Satanic Bible.

Not terrible then but not great either, THE PHYSICISTS are a band that for all their hard work probably won't attract a massive audience. If you graduated from Nu Metal to become a Rivethead and want something that reminds you of a misspent youth with the likes of GODHEAD look no further, but if you left this genre in the past with your baggy trousers and 'Evil Inside' t-shirt they won't change your mind.