Alkaline scour down the sound of alternative metal, leaving it coarse and snarling as they kick out upbeat rhythms with distorted guitars and raspy vocals. Comparisons don't stick to well with the band, although their sound could possibly be summed up as the darker, evil brother of radio friendly alternative metal that graces the airwaves today.

Vocally the album is focused upon the medium range and feels saturated with resentment as it snaps out fast paced lyrical structures which rapidly spit out a flurry of words before coalescing into melodic choruses. Guitars are husky and take form with crisp distortion and consistent riffs which play heavily upon build-up's as they relentlessly churn out edgy chord strokes and almost mechanical sounding squeals to ensure a constant motion. Bass is downtuned a bit and follows the guitar fairly closely, creating a thick stringed wall of sound with brawny percussive hits and chunky low rumbles. Drum wise the album is filled with confident percussion that comes complete with a warm sound and a humble tuning that sets up a solid base for the explosive use of snare variation to indulge itself upon.

Musically the groups ideas are worthy, but sadly overall the CD seems to be lacking any real compelling emotion or depth. The songs feel thin, almost rushed to a point and also suffer from a lack of dynamics, making things become bleakly repetitive quite fast. This is not to say that the band is at fault, because they do have the drive and determination, but they rarely veer from their rigid pace which results in the passion and intensity depleting slowly, but surely. If the group can take the time to solidify their song structures and mix things up a bit more, they will have a much better chance of firmly grabbing the listeners attention, but as it stands things need a bit of work. Alkaline definitely have the energy of a battery, but that can be dangerous without an element of restraint to keep it from corroding itself. With a bit more time and growth together, perhaps they will be able to construct such qualities, giving themselves a longer life span in the CD player, but for now there's just not enough there to keep things juiced up enough to avoid being quickly replaced.
(2.5 / 5)