The first thing that is striking about ‘The Legend of Ladybeard’, is the name, which is far from a commonly used title. The second thing is the content – one music video for ‘Sororicide, one video documentary and two audio songs.

The first client on the CD is a quite X rated blood fest, following a group of female urban vampires killing their snacks and leaving in their wake an obvious trail of destruction. In the end the singer is a vampire too and kills the band. Next, Brand Violet present an apparently pointless but non the less interesting piece of film outlining the bands recording session, trip to an arcade, playing with soft toys and saying things they may come to regret if they do become the next big thing to inspire kids. Then come the song for Sororicide (this time without the bloody thirsty video) which is a good pop song with Brand Violets stamp all over it – full guitars, pounding drums, butter-wouldn’t-melt vocals and the quirky sounds and production techniques that give the band their niche. ‘Rail thin’ starts with the Halloween piano string plucking idea that was conceived on film, and jumps into thumping rock which was also being filmed. Quite a rocky song which Brand Violet pull off with the usual level of competence that we have come to expect from them.

So the idea of this audio/visual promo CD may seem a little pointless, but it does, in it’s self, continue the bands originality from the music through to the presentation like a breath of fresh air.