Noise Pollution - Unreal

Nothing like finding new music to break you out of your mold. I have a hard time classifying modern heavy metal. I mean, with so many subgenres of metal out there, what makes any one band a certain one when it has elements of several genres? A lot of people would say "what does it matter?", but you have to understand that when put in the position of describing a product to others (especially in the context of recommending it), as I am in this review, it's kind of essential to the whole deal.

There's a lot of low end aggressiveness on Noise Pollution's sophomore album, Unreal, which follows a successful self-published debut and tons of live shows with the likes of Black Label Society, Airbourne, Skid Row and Black Stone Cherry. And from the sound of it, they earned the right to share the stage with such hard rocking luminaries, cuz this is some decent heavy jamming. That said, I can't claim that this Italian quintet is breaking any new ground musically speaking, but they do have some catchy rhythms and a satisfying crunch even if they lyrics are a bit cliched sounding. May I can put it this way: there are endless direct to video rip-offs of popular movies - like, say, The Fast And The Furious - and they need soundtracks too...

The Bottom Line: Fans of post hardcore (circa late 90s) will probably enjoy putting this album on their party rotation. You could do a lot worse.

- Genghis is itching for some live music...