So many questions would have remained unanswered has this album not been releasded. Five years in music is a long time. 1995 until now must have seemed like an eternity for Whipping Boy.

This, their third album, was completed over two years ago, but for various reasons has only surfaced in April 2000. Although Whipping Boy managed to grind up and dispose of most of their competitors with the 'Heartworm' album leaving substantial lengths of time such as this won't have done them any favours.

On first inspection 'Whipping Boy' is made up of an uneasy blend of big arrangements and the tortured tales that they made their own in the early 1990s. These aren't the songs that many would have expected from a new album but no one would have predicted the events that preceded it either.

I If anything, this is a record that will gradually seep under your skin and reveal the charm that it holds deep within. They could have delved a lot deeper into the wilderness that they touched on with 'Submarine', this though, finds them putting their point across in a more controlled and developed way.