Review of Brand New Sin - Recipe For Disaster

Hmm. Looks like it's about that time. Yep, right on schedule. After getting to review two decent releases, it's time to return to my brave post of "reviewer of all things untouchable," featuring today's installment of Syracuse's Brand New Sin, a band that embodies the definition of the term "colorless". Unless you consider cheesiness to be a component of a band's personality, that is. I don't feel the need to prove my credentials with needless name-dropping, but I'm asking you to trust that I'm a fully qualified fan of rock in any form. So please, don't get the wrong idea here.

It's just uninspired and run-of-the-mill for the genre. Developing distinction while playing such a time-tested style can't be easy, so I forgive them for that at least. But certain facets of Brand New Sin's delivery are a little harder to get past. By far, the most aggravating thing about Recipe For Disaster is the track "Black And Blue," but not because it's exceptionally bad. It's actually one of the highlights of the album, musically. Anyway, vocalist Joe Altier attempts to cram too many words into one bar and ends up making his band sound like some of the most amateurish trash I've heard on a major label. Add to that, his vocals come across as so produced and artificial, it occasionally appears that he might honestly have a good voice for rock if he were uninhibited and given a rawer sound. "Running Alone", no matter how many times the "gruff yet working-class" acoustic ballad thing has been done, still maintains to be the best song on the album due to the rustic atmosphere created by the steady kick-drum, the only percussion on the song. Aside from that, there's little that's worth commenting on, for better or for worse. Songs like "Days Are Numbered" only reinforce this fact, as even as I'm listening to it, I can't seem to recall anything but the overly familiar vocal pattern ten seconds earlier. "Wyoming" provides the final ingredient in this Recipe For Disaster, leaving a terrible taste in my mouth due to a level of seemingly feigned emotion unheard on the rest of the record.

The problem isn't with the band's talent, it's with their songwriting. It's just so uninteresting despite the fact that, shockingly, there's still nectar to be milked from the southern rock genre, and it's being done so by bands like Black Label Society, Corrosion Of Conformity, and Alabama Thunderpussy. Not to feed into the controversy that inevitably comes with writing a negative review, but I'd be surprised if these guys ascended the local bar circuit if they didn't have the name recognition that Kris Wiechmann, formerly of Earth Crisis, brings to the table. But oh well, there are worst things than producing an average and sometimes slightly boring CD. Eh, for the record, I hear their first album's a lot better.

Release Details

Brand New Sin

Recipe For Disaster

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