The Black Crowes say an album review by Maxim magazine was fabricated because advance CDs were not available.

The critique, published in Maxim's March issue, gives the Crowes' Warpaint a rating of 2½ stars out of five.

"The writer — who has not heard the album, since advance CDs were not made available — wrote what appears to be a disparaging assessment anyway, citing, 'it hasn't left Chris Robinson and the gang much room for growth,' " said a statement on the band's official website.

The band's manager, Pete Angelus, said the band raised the issue with Maxim, which, he said, responded in an e-mail with the following: "Of course, we always prefer to [sic] hearing music, but sometimes there are big albums that we don't want to ignore that aren't available to hear, which is what happened with the Crowes. It's either an educated guess preview or no coverage at all, so in this case we chose the former."

Maxim, which has not confirmed the authenticity of the e-mail message to Angelus, released this statement in response: "Maxim will continue to provide our readers with information that is important to them, whether it is about fashion, lifestyle, technology, music, movies and more."

"It's a disgrace to the arts, journalism, critics, the publication itself and the public," Angelus said.

"What's next — Maxim's concert reviews of shows they never attended, book reviews of books never read and film reviews of films never seen?"

Warpaint marks the band's first album in seven years and is set for release March 4. The blues-rock group has released only one song from the disc, Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution.