Listening to Hole for the first time is like a slap in the face on your first date. Hole has been widely publicized due to frontwoman Courtney Love's marriage to the late Kurt Cobain. I'd always expected them to hop on the grunge bandwagon and get reeled in by the public. They proved me wrong.

Hole's major label debut, "Live Through This," is unlike any female band I've heard in a long time. They include the biting vocals and the loud power chords of L7 but they also have the acoustic strumming and melodic singing of Belly or Juliana Hatfield. Songs like "Violet" and "Miss World" alternate between the loudness and the melodies while "Plump" and "Gutless" are like a punch to the mouth.

Courtney Love is a great vocalist, switching from a sweet caring voice to a crooked howl. Her lyrics seem to come from the heart too. "Go on take everything/I want you to" she ironically screams in "Violet." Sometimes she screams so loud her vocals can't be understood. If she's not careful she will be coughing up blood along with Pantera's Phil Anselmo and The Mighty Mighty Bosstone's Dickie Barret.

Let's hope Hole will get a lot of new fans with "Live Through This." But don't buy it just because you're a Nirvana fan. It's on a totally different wavelength from that band, though both should be respected. .