I was always of the opinion that a great band needed great influences. However, yesterday my copy of C.AARMÉ's debut album arrived and I've pretty much listened to it non-stop. Its 25 minutes of fast no frills hardcore. It’s amazing. Listening to it you'd think they'd been brought up on a diet of Bad Brains, Black Flag and the Stooges, but apparently they'd never heard any of these bands, and were trying to make a record that sounded like Soulfly. Its quite unbelievable considering how good this album is.

So yeah, can a band create something great having not listened to the greats??