STEMM are a brutish 5 piece who hail from NY and make no butts about their intentions to lay down some crushing heavy music that is deep rooted within various different genres. Sounding like the result of a plane crash that carried the likes of Primer 55, Godsmack, E.Town Concrete and Downset., the bands sound is unrelenting, filled with rough raps, scorching yells and bottom heavy riffs.

Band frontman Louis belts out stunted raps, mixed with the snarling hardcore backups of guitarist Joe, creating an empowering contrast that is edgy and almost thug-ish. Meanwhile, the guitar work churns out a bucket load of molten new metal meets metalcore riffs, dripping with downtuning and militant, chunky grooves. Bass playing is also a slight bit detuned as well, though it does have a decidedly more upbeat nature than its guitar brethren, using a diluted funk meets modern metal style to cement the underbelly of the band. Stitched up by drumming courtesy of Jimi, the percussive aspect of the album is fairly crisp and works closely with the bass to keep a steady stream of deep, driving rhythm punctuated by dulled snare hits and crashing cymbals.

Overall the band are far from breaking the mold, but in their favor, the rawness and way they execute their music helps to push their shortcomings out of the spotlight. Taking on a fairly well versed array of genres and mixing them into one, its interesting to see where they go next, from the Downset. rapcore feel of "Realize" to the Godsmack reminiscent "Down" and the violent metalcore of "Perfect". The song "Out Of Context" is also quite an intriguing track, taking lyrics from such rap artists as Outkast, Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock amongst others, and dropping them in a hostile, volatile metal environment. Unfortunately though, the group suffer from a slight lack of originality in terms of sound as a whole and can also be hampered by Louis' rhymes occasionally trailing off, sounding a bit unorganized and ill planned. The metalcore element included here is definitely the bands strongest point and would be a more recommended direction for them to travel in, but only time will tell what way their music will stem out from and grow, because they definitely don't sound dead yet, even if their album is titled "Dead To Me".