Put together like Frankenstein
Well the band's name and album title certainly sound good. It certainly made me pick it up out of interest. I wasn't quite sure what to expect and I'm still not certain. The Tipton brothers are at it again with what can only be described as strange, technical metal. There's no pre-determined pattern here at all, with each song taking a different and moody edge.
It is certainly somewhat pleasing to hear vocals that aren't completely guttural for a change, but the vocals in "Power to Believe" start off with Bruce Dickinson style quality, but then moving into some kind of chorus of robots. It certainly keeps you guessing and yes, there are the usual things you'd expect from metal; the double kicks, the heavily distorted guitar with plenty of fast licks and just a tad of shouting.
But this strength seems like a weakness to me. Despite the interesting samples and obvious talent, I'm still not so sure about this. The title track has some rather silly sounding distortion over the vocals, making it sound like a cheesy version of Dream Evil in places. Then a quiet bit gets inserted and it simple sounds out of place. Back we go to sweeping guitar licks that have little in the sense of musicality made worse by the off-time, changing rhythm of the drums.
It's somewhat sad because this doesn't stop throughout the entire album. It certainly is an assault on your senses but not in the way extreme metal would be. It lacks the out and out coherent hate that a lot of death metal bands throw at you. I can't help but feel this band would be better going down the Tool route. In "Tendonitis" we are treated to a lovely guitar solo with a couple of samples, resulting in something that is actually listenable, if a little Steve Vai-esque in ego. But that's pretty much it. We end up back with the same formula.
Certainly, there's a lot of talent and skill in this band and it's a shame that, although each member is tight, they 'aint making beautiful music together.