Liliths Army

There’s something refreshingly unpolished about 'Doll'. In an era where Alternative Rock is routinely smoothed into submission by over-production and algorithm-friendly choruses, Liliths Army instead choose abrasion, volatility and the occasional left-field curveball. The trio of Sylvie Studente on vocals and guitar, Tommy Mayo on bass and Sam Sherwood on drums play like a unit that values impact over perfection, delivering songs that feel lived-in rather than lab-tested.

It opens with 'Eat My TV', a gleeful skewering of the tawdrier corners of Hip-Hop culture and its hyper-sexualised video aesthetics. Studente’s delivery is acidic yet playful, bubblegum Punk hooks recalling Shampoo filtered through distortion and attitude, while Mayo and Sherwood lock into a deceptively tight groove beneath the chaos.

From there the record turns darker. 'Cursed' stalks in on Sherwood’s thunderous drums and Mayo’s ominous bass line, with Studente sounding less sung than exorcised. 'Reach Out' keeps the same pressure-cooker intensity, as if the band are daring you to blink first.

'Stoop' sits somewhere between ’90s Grunge and the shadowed end of Black Sabbath’s catalogue, all mud-caked riffs and bleak momentum, while 'Get Away' tips its hat towards 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' without collapsing into pastiche.

The middle of the album briefly lifts the clouds. 'Breathe' breaks from the gloom with a genuinely uplifting chorus, and 'Drain Me' pairs dark subject matter with a more melodic, almost comforting hook.

Heaviness soon reasserts itself on 'Possessed', which lives up to its name, before the album’s most unexpected turn arrives. 'Helpless' strips everything back to piano and swathes of cello, a fragile moment that makes the surrounding noise feel even more brutal by contrast.

The closing title track, 'Doll', is the emotional core of the record, a defiant response to a former colleague who once reduced Studente to a belittling nickname. It is not self-pitying but reclaiming.

'Doll' is not a comfortable listen, and that is its strength. Liliths Army are not chasing polish here, they are chasing honesty, and this bruising, visceral record refuses to be ignored.

Ivan De Mello