Slave To The System
Self Titled
6.1
This is not going to win an award for originality or inventiveness. Imagine a stripped down Soundgarden hitting it on all cylinders and without so much of the grunge trappings. Or maybe a very very stripped down Stone Temple Pilots without the pop trappings. If you aren't into ROCK and at least one of the above mentioned two bands, just forget it. This is not for you.
Because this is metal in the oldest sense of the word; heavy ROCK riffing, pounding drums, simple rhythms and lots of backbeat. Some great soloing that reminds of bygone days: Dave Davies, Angus Young, a little Nuge, maybe? This is tight, but with plenty of breathing space. They have a great singer who never goes over the top and fits like a glove in the band's style.
Sound like I am gushing? Well, sit back down, because here comes the other shoe.
The problem here is that if you do have Soundgarden or Stone Temple Pilots, you already have this record. Yeah, it is stripped down, but the essentials of the sound and the vibe are all pretty dated and overly familiar. And the songs, while certainly a world better than other average post grungers like Creed or 3 Doors Down is really, at heart, just someone else's rock music with someone else's sound. You can, without a great deal of imagination hear the ballads being played in a block with Nickleback and the above mentioned 3DD or Creed. I will give these guys a nod for being dirtier than their comrades in balladeering ROCK, but just a nod.
There IS a place in my record collection for pure ROCKers. Soundgarden holds a spot, as do the Supersuckers and their kin. And of course the originals, from the Stones to AC/DC to 70's Aerosmith. And if nothing else this band, when straight ROCKing does it well enough to get under my skin. But when they slow it down it treads too close to AOR, and in the end it's just not something I can recommend to a fellow hard ROCKer, let alone a metalhead.
