There's some pretty obvious ways as to how the title of SOiL's latest album could be interpreted. With a new frontman by the name of A.J. Cavalier in place; the band might be hinting that they are now able to do what they couldn't make happen with his predecessor. Or perhaps it is no longer being faced with the pressures and expectations of their now former label J Records; a move which could be seen as giving them the freedom to unveil their "True Self".

Whatever the motivations may be, SOiL for the most part stick to their guns with this latest affair, providing steady doses of melodic modern metal. While new vocalist A.J. Cavalier's more versatile range does see the band lose a lot of their Southern styled grit and punctual kick, it also sees them tackling more ballad-styled numbers in turn.

As such, some tracks come peppered with gruff barks while others see more heartfelt melodies. All in all though, this really doesn't amount to much more than is to be expected from a hard rock band who seem to have some hefty aspirations for radio play and barroom brawl soundtracks. Their latest songs, while more developed than the bands previous work, seem less crunchier and lack the rowdy sharp edges of the past.

As the album progresses this becomes a problem as a particular songwriting formula seems to be overused with only minor variations filling in the gaps. Sure the group have added more weight to the material through the use of solos, increased instrumentalism and some varying textures. But you can almost guarantee to be met by a chugging guitar-driven verse with snarling vocals that segues into a build up to or a hooky melodic chorus each time out.

This, coupled with the fact that while talented, Cavalier can tend to imitate various modern contemporaries (Korn, Alice In Chains, etc.) a little too closely does not bode entirely well for the band. In spite of this "True Self" does remain perhaps the bands most mature and ambitious effort to date as it finds them a exploring broader spectrum of rock, increasing their technical prowess and generally writing more involved songs.

But the real problem with it all is that much of its characteristics border on nu-metal/grunge/radio rock standards that are even more played out than Swedish death metal riffing on a metalcore record. Thus, it's really hard to see this being the actual 'true self' of SOiL as much of it feels like it was taken or directly inspired by the numerous others before them - even if it does still deliver a few good punches here and there.