The Hong Kong Blood Opera (No 535)

Named after a genre of violent action movies from the 80s, these fey indie types play twee synth-pop. Not really, they're brutal, fast, electro-metallers with shrieky vocals

Hometown: Hermosillo, Mexico City.

The lineup: Sebastián Samaniego (vocals), Luis Andonaegui (guitar), Luis Alvarez (synths), Miguel Valdez (drums), Memo Ibarra (synth, guitar).

The background: The Hong Kong Blood Opera, a five-piece from a town close to the border between Mexico and the States, take their name from a film genre ascribed to John Woo movies like Hard Boiled and The Killer – Hong Kong Blood Operas, they call them. "I think it goes really well with the aesthetic of the band," says frontman Sebastián Samaniego, describing it as "our little homage to those violent action movies from the 80s". "We're really into horror films," he adds, explaining that they got their song title Switchblade Romance from one such French gore fest, High Tension. Now, wouldn't it be funny if the music they made was jangly indie and they were going for a stark contrast between name and sound? After all, it worked for Scottish duo Strawberry Switchblade, those mid-80s purveyors of twee synth-pop who danced around in polka-dot dresses and had ickle-gurl voices (they were, in fact, girls). Well, it would be, but it's not. It's brutal, fast, sleek electro-metal with shrieky vocals, and it's loud enough to wake the dead. On one of their tracks the singer emits a series of high-pitched blood-curdling entreaties to "wake up, wake up!", and it is indeed jarring enough to jolt upright a cadaver.

We heard about THKBO from Andrew Chester, formerly one half of Manchester duo My Computer, who made the criminally underrated 2002 album Vulnerabilia. He now runs an online imprint called Recreation. We wrote about one of his signings, Black Jackson, the other week, and here's another. It's turning out to be some roster. Black Jackson make atmospheric orchestral rock; this lot create a different kind of tension. It's not death metal, it's punkier and more garage-y than that, with splatters of synth and tech-tronic surges. Imagine Phil Anselmo of Pantera jamming with LCD Soundsystem, or Steve Albini and Paul Epworth arguing about who's going to produce the next Hives album. According to our spies, THKBO – who beat 7,000 other contestants in a national battle of the bands two years ago, have songs called Killing Joke and Disco Sucks that sound like Killing Joke playing sucky disco and another called Crazy Mexican Scientists about being (wrongly) arrested for possession of crack – tend to assault crowds with vicious intent. And that's just at the shops.

The buzz: "They mix together the best in punk, hardcore and rock'n'roll, and do it with an energy and refinement you don't find that often these days."

The truth: They're the most extreme electro-punk band ever to sign to a Manchester label. Apart, of course, from the Railway Children.

Most likely to: Feature a cameo from Chow Yun-Fat in their next video.

Least likely to: Feature a cameo from Cameo in their next video.

What to buy: Killing Joke and Disco Sucks are available to download from www.recreationrecords.com.

File next to: The Refused, White Stripes, the Hives, Pantera.

Links: www.myspace.com/hkbo

Tomorrow's new band: Tinted Windows.

info:http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/27/hong-kong-blood-opera