Untitled Document

     The main songwriting team of Tim Narducci and Adam Ruppel have joined forces with new members Johnny Bechtel on bass and veteran skin basher Paul Bostaph to make a tight, cohesive unit hell-bent on getting you up and moving.
     Upbeat cuts like “Pleasure To Burn” and “Change” have a quick tempo, unorthodox guitar tones, and punishing bottom-end, while tracks like “Shine” and “The Water Cure” bring to mind vintage ’92 Alice In Chains—dare I say neo-grunge? (Well, there’s neo-soul and nu-metal, so why not coin a new phrase such as neo-grunge? Haha). But that is not the only style and tempo that these guys are capable of. “Jane Doe” shows off the considerable bass skills of Bechtel and the polyrhythmic punctuation of Bostaph’s drums wrapped around a very Navarro-esque Nothing’s Shocking-era guitar tone. It’s one of the better cuts on the album, as is the closing track, “I’ll Get By”, a very punkish tune (of which I’d like to hear them do more).
     This is definitely heavy, but as with most things that Benson and Plotnikoff touch, it is also slick and radio-friendly, commercial even, by today’s standards. But don’t let that description keep you from checking out one of the better releases from a major label so far this year.

	SYSTEMATIC PLEASURE TO BURN ELEKTRA	LINKS: systematic1.com systematiconline.com
	The new album from Systematic has been highly anticipated. The new 13-track disc (produced by Howard Benson and mixed by Mike Plotnikoff) is a mix of metallic backbone, vengeful lyrical sinew, and smooth vocal skin.
The main songwriting team of Tim Narducci and Adam Ruppel have joined forces with new members Johnny Bechtel on bass and veteran skin basher Paul Bostaph to make a tight, cohesive unit hell-bent on getting you up and moving. Upbeat cuts like “Pleasure To Burn” and “Change” have a quick tempo, unorthodox guitar tones, and punishing bottom-end, while tracks like “Shine” and “The Water Cure” bring to mind vintage ’92 Alice In Chains—dare I say neo-grunge? (Well, there’s neo-soul and nu-metal, so why not coin a new phrase such as neo-grunge? Haha). But that is not the only style and tempo that these guys are capable of. “Jane Doe” shows off the considerable bass skills of Bechtel and the polyrhythmic punctuation of Bostaph’s drums wrapped around a very Navarro-esque Nothing’s Shocking-era guitar tone. It’s one of the better cuts on the album, as is the closing track, “I’ll Get By”, a very punkish tune (of which I’d like to hear them do more). This is definitely heavy, but as with most things that Benson and Plotnikoff touch, it is also slick and radio-friendly, commercial even, by today’s standards. But don’t let that description keep you from checking out one of the better releases from a major label so far this year.
----Christine Natanael