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Reviewed
by: Darklight
This
is some of the more refreshing music that I have heard in a while. All
of the songs here blend alternative, punk, and techno with excellent
female vocals and lyrics that really hit home. Each track manages to
sound unique with their own edge. The main driving force behind this
material is guitar, bass and drums. So this is heavy rock music for
the most part. However, there is electronic programming as well that
helps add more variety and a dance edge. Unfortunately, the thrashy
guitars tend to drown out the electronic/synth elements in the songs.
This is what makes the band have a commercial crossover alternative
rock sound. While I will admit that they sound a lot better than most
other heavy electro rock bands out there, I feel that they could be
even better if they backed off on the guitars a bit and created their
music with mainly electronic sequencing, synths and sampling. I am quite
pleased that every track here does include singing. Laurel, the singer
of the band, has a great voice and sings both aggressive and melodic
with a lot of harmony and range. It's a nice change to hear really good
female vocals in this kind of music. The lyrics in these songs are well
written and fairly direct with what they have to say. These are not
happy little love songs. All of the tracks are rather aggressive and
rock hard, but they don't just thrash from start to finish. There's
a lot of changing emotions delivered. Most of the songs are structured
where they begin melodic and then rock later in their course. This does
add passion and variety. If a song begins soft and mellow, don't be
fooled. Before you know what hit you the song will turn heavy and aggressive
with a thrashy hard rock edge to it. While there isn't a bad track to
be found here, some do stand out more than others. I personally like
"Rain In The Air", "Spark", "Unloved",
"I Can't Breathe" and "Whirling Within". They include
a good helping of electronics and mix a lot of changing directions in
both mood and energy. One of my biggest complaints is that all of the
songs on this album are too short. While three to four minutes might
be enough for straight forward verse/chorus/verse songs, it's not for
these songs that have so much happening in them. The songs sound like
they end before they should. The overall quality of this album is top
notch. It's polished and well produced with a very clean sound to it.
If you're looking for something slightly different in the guitar crossover
industrial realm, you can't go wrong with this album.
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