Reviewed by Graeme Crawford

The title of this album, BioGenesis' second, is a reference to the fact that the Ohio experimentalists' debut album made quite a stir, but then the group disbanded amongst myriad lineup changes, and have now been reborn with the original members. Their ethos remains unchanged, despite the intervening years, so they continue to combine several different types of metal into their sound, often within individual songs. Frontman Chaz Bond handles all of the vocals himself and jumps vocal style along with the musical changes, giving us '80s metal, thrash growls, death metal grunts and progressive metal singing with varying degrees of success. Personally I don't feel he handles the harsher vocal styles very well and he is much better sticking to the more classic, clean style. It is also apparent that drummer Nevin Cline struggles with the faster drumming style of the more extreme elements, with the exception of his double-bass drumming. Often however, the stickwork is restrained and interferes with the sound of the guitars. The guitar is quite low in the mix, while the bass sound is too distorted and breaks up in the lower register. They have some clever riffs, but the poor production really detracts from your enjoyment of these. It is easy to admire their efforts to be proficient in different styles, however this would be more enjoyable if they displayed more restraint and concentrated on one or two styles.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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