Unfortunately "Music For The Recently Deceased" is not the aural counterpart to the Handbook For The Recently Deceased featured in "Beetlejuice". Instead, it is the latest album from Australian metalcore outfit I Killed The Prom Queen - and an album that generally follows the American metalcore handbook to the letter.

Taking the same penchant for mixing Swedish melodic death metal riffs with hulking metalcore and the obligatory melodic passages as just about everyone else, I Killed The Prom Queen are well versed in everything they do - except creativity. Sounding like a cut and paste job of the better elements of recent efforts by the likes of As I Lay Dying, Unearth and more, little included here is particularly worth remembering.

The cohesive songwriting and the groups searing instrumental abilities just aren't enough to mask the lack of inventive substance. Two to three years ago this album would have helped paved the way, but now in 2006 the bulk of it barely even makes one flinch. It shreds and slashes yet fails to pierce the skin because even the groups sharpest moments are dulled by following their influences far too closely. So much so that even the recurring appearances of death gurgle vocals come off as cliche.

Still, despite their lack of identity, I Killed The Prom Queen are easily on the same musical level as the current North American metalcore heavyweights. But with the North American scene already outrageously overcrowded and in experimental decline, hearing another faux Swedish metalcore band is increasingly becoming about as welcome as finding dog shit on the bottom of your shoe.