Meldrum are the Van Halen of Swedish metal chicks, being the brainchild of axe slinger Michelle Meldrum, but they will no doubt be compared to super model thrash metallers Drain STH, a band whose cold metal churn was dismissed at every turn by the sausage factory foremen of heavy fucking metal, who insisted the band was getting by on it's looks, even when they were blowing turgid aggro bands off of the secondary stages they were relegated to. Meldrum might be tough for all that leather boy sexism, though. They sound like what Lita Ford meant, but was too weighed down by hair spray to accurately pull off- female fronted metal with big brass balls. 'Loaded' this mental and sonic cannon certainly is, with thrashy power rawk, minor chords and Zakk Wylde squeals, the pissed off feral feminism of Tairrie B, the stoner groove of Sabbath and the ripping southern rock riffs of all the desert rockers they spawned, but it's all buffed up like a shiny new machine, like Meldrum are tired of what's already happened, and they're hungry for whatever's next. Any band that is gonna revive the 80's hard rock as proto-cyber thrash of Shotgun Messiah to get there is obviously on the ball. Even if they weren't all gorgeous (well, not lone boy in the band, drummer Fredrik Haake- he's merely handsome), even if they all looked like L7 or something, I'd love them anyway. There's something about enraged women with guitars that just feels like rock and roll. "Loaded Mental Cannon" is a furious wallop of dark, arena ready Grrl metal tempered, somewhat, with a streak of sadness (they are Swedish, after all), but it's all moshpit victory dances and much throwing of the horns in the end.