The Hives: Tyrannosaurus Hives, Universal

Those five wacky guys from Fagersta, Sweden are about to begin the next phase of their plan for world domination. Having swaggered their way into our hearts with a combination of cartoon arrogance and killer punk-pop tunes, Howlin' Pelle Almquist, Vigilante Carlstrom, Chris Dangerous, Nicholaus Arson and Dr Matt Destruction have a lot of idle boasting to live up to. Their last release, Your New Favourite Band, combined the best of their first two albums, so this new record has a mountain of expectation to climb.

The title shows they haven't lost their confidence but, at just 30 minutes long, Tyrannosaurus Hives is more like a rock velociraptor, moving in quickly for the kill, then disappearing before the dust has had time to settle. Most of the 12 tracks clock in at barely two minutes, but the band pack so much into those two minutes, it feels like a full-on buzzpunk epic - Quadrupedrophenia, perhaps. It opens with the puntastic Abra Cadaver, at 1 minute 30 seconds the shortest (de)composition here, and crashes recklessly through Walk Idiot Walk, B Is for Brutus, See Through Head, Missing Link and Dead Quote Olympics.

Each song takes a familiar-sounding riff, then wrestles it to the ground and bends it to The Hives' nefarious ends. But sometimes you feel the band are paying too much attention to the guitar sounds and not enough to the tunesmithery. Still, this monster mash-up proves The Hives still have one hell of a bite. www.hivesmusic.com