Critical Meat is a mini album from Derby/Nottingham four piece ‘You Slut!’. Things start brightly when looking at some of the track names; ‘On-the-spot Tina Turner Fine’ and ‘Pie To The Death-faced Indie Kid’ are works of genius: unfortunately the music can’t live up to this. The eight tracks are all rock/heavy metal instrumentals, which clearly exhibit the bands whom have been cited as major influences, such Forward Russia!, At the Drive-In, Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin. However, unlike early Mogwai or Explosions in the sky, there is a lack of depth to these tracks, and they do sound just like average heavy metal songs but without any vocals. It is difficult to see the need for these songs, unless they can be used for backing at a heavy metal karaoke night, or for people who are scared of the growling/shouting vocals associated with rock music.
