This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
There have been a rash of razor-throated females on the scene lately.
First Kittie, then Otep; now, Michelle from Bronx hardcore outfit Hiretsukan — Japanese for ‘mean bastard’ — is the newest woman putting the metal men to shame with her tonsil-shredding tones on the band’s seven-track, 16-minute Invasive // Exotic. Screaming bloody murder like a Mob torture victim, she leads the boys in the band through a slate of above-average hardcore fare laced with angular guitar work, complex syncopation and arrangements that are several cuts above the usual speedball thrashing. Obviously they take their work seriously — but the spot-on cover of Metallica’s Creeping Death clues you in that their wit is just as sharp as those razor blades Michelle must swallow to keep her voice in shape.
