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| Album Rating: B- |
Alternative metal is a hard genre to be a part of. The proverbial "breaking of the mold" is difficult to do when the style of music relies heavily on recycled sounds that appeal to the average person listening to the local rock station on the morning commute. Because of this, most of the bands that have made it big (i.e. Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Seether) have either tried and failed to make their sound different than the other bands around them or created formulaic music that a machine could have pumped out. Power-chord-driven guitar riffs, almost inaudible bass lines and vocals alternating between an upper-range snarl/whine and a half-hearted scream combine to make entirely uninspired music for the most part. And, since the genre is so jam-packed with bands, whenever a band manages to stick their head above the fray (see Crossfade's
We All Bleed), ten more appear to crush them back down into obsolescence. Sure, a lot of alt-metal is really fun to listen to, but from a critical perspective most of it just doesn't have the originality to warrant playing it over and over again. One of the reasons I keep coming back to hear fresh faces in the genre is because I really, really want to hear a new take, one that strays from the path of mediocrity and one that I can truly appreciate as a critic as well as a fan of the genre.
