A pair of business-minded women who you really don't want to mess with and two of the fastest-rising Vegas bands headline this month's roundup of local releases:

You In Series, "Outside We Are Fine" (Equal Vision): You In Series singer Kyle Lobeck hits the high notes and then digs his fingernails into them, holding on for dear life. "You know I am anything but subtle," he announces at one point, wringing every ounce of melodrama from his band's textured, autumnal tunes.

And that's OK, because there's plenty of subtlety in the band's delicately dissonant guitars, which buzz and hiss around Lobeck's swelling voice. It's a strong combination, a blend of skyward harmonies and rhythmic crunch prone to dozens of tangents on the group's superb debut. It's punk I suppose, but only in the sense that it doesn't follow the rules.

Escape the Fate, "There's No Sympathy for the Dead" (Epitaph): On its debut EP, Escape the Fate inverts the typical metalcore formula: Instead of tempering aggression with melody, the band hones in on the harmony first, then spikes it with the type of vein-bursting bloodletting that has come to define the subgenre.

Frontman Ronnie Radke favors a wide-eyed whelp, his voice cracking as he sings of video games and betrayal. He's backed by a twin guitar tandem fond of the kind of dueling melodic leads that Iron Maiden first popularized. The sticker on the album compares Escape the Fate to the likes of Atreyu and Senses Fail, but thankfully, these dudes are already close to surpassing those stiffs.

Pecadilloes, "Rumor Control" (www.pecadilloes.net): "I came out of you in haste," Pecadilloes singer San-D tells her mom on "Stillborn," and she hasn't slowed down yet, venting about Big Brother and working for minimum wage in a phlegmy rasp scorched by too much nicotine and shouting.

This is base blue-collar punk that reeks of cheap beer and motor oil, with spare and speedy tunes buttressed by gang vocal choruses and ragged, jagged guitars. "Rumor Control" is so rank and raw, you'll be scrubbing the stink of the pit off you after spinning this bad boy.

The Objex, "Bound and Gagged" (www.theobjex.net): Formed by drummer Joe Perv from the ashes of local punks the Pervz, the Objex come with the kind of fast and loose rock 'n' roll that normally results in lots of sweat stains and sore limbs.

Frontwoman Felony Melanie delivers come-ons and put-downs in a throaty bellow that boasts just enough tunefulness to highlight the hooks buried beneath all the grease and denim. The band occasionally approaches a near-rockabilly beat on songs such as "Kill Joy," but for the most part the Objex race through this disc like teens on a joyride 'til the gas tank's empty.

Jason Bracelin's "Sounding Off" column appears Tuesdays. Contact him at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com