There is a touch of sadness to the debut by 7 Year Bitch, a highly touted group of Seattle riot grrrls. It has little to do with the music's chaotic verve and everything to do with the fatal heroin OD last summer of guitarist Stefanie Sargent. So the rush of this feral, feminist rock noise has been muted by tragedy, slowing down if not altogether stopping a band ready to kick a little patriarchal ass.

Slowing down and stopping maybe, but not silencing. A palpable vitality pervades Sick 'Em that even sadness and the odd slack moment can't undo. With Sargent's guitar coughing up riff-heavy hairballs of distortion, Selene Vigil's shout-sing vocals are given a suitably edgy foundation. Drenched in a punk-era ethos, song titles jump out like spraypainted slogans at a Take Back the Night rally: "Dead Men Don't Rape," "No Fucking War," "Tired of Nothing." Sonically, it's unsurprisingly direct, but that never stops bassist and principal songwriter Elizabeth Davis from mucking with convention. Like revving the hell out of "In Lust You Trust" only to lurch into a bridge that sounds as if it were lifted from a different song.

As good as it is, Sick 'Em would quickly wear out its welcome if high volume and a firm grasp of the aesthetics of confrontation were the only things that distinguished 7 Year Bitch. Truth be told, insight is sometimes replaced by oversimplification, but the sisterhood solidarity of "Lorna" and the hilarious peace via coitus interruptus simile in "No Fucking War" ("So Bush pull out/Like your father should have") proves that this band is too smart to rework a hard-rock-and-hate vibe lazily to death. This may be the sound of youthful alienation, but it offers catharsis, a wicked sense of humor and the occasional epiphany.

Like much riot-grrrl rock, 7 Year Bitch is not about girls acting like boys or marketable bravado but excitement and empowerment, claiming turf and building a new community. That community has yielded indie rock that has as much to do with being female as with playing rock & roll. The shame is it will have to be done without Stefanie Sargent.

Sick 'Em is available from C/Z, 1407 East Madison, No. 41, Seattle, WA 98122. (RS 649)

JOHN DOUGAN