During the late 1990s, just when hard rock seemed to be rising from its grave, it was buried under piles of half-assed bands whose commercial take on heavy metal was clearly geared for maximum revenue. Suckers like Creed, Godsmack and Fuel destroyed any honest momentum the genre had. Luckily, Align have arrived on the scene to show these losers how it's done. Hailing from Minneapolis, this quartet repeats the feats of other Minnesota exports like Prince and Hüsker Dü -- namely taking an established genre, clearing away the bullshit and making something serious happen.

Taking cues from metal, hardcore and pop, the band has put together ten well-crafted songs with as many vocal and instrumental hooks as anything you'll find on the radio. The music draws on familiar hard rock influences such as Helmet, providing a solid base for Jeremy Jessen's vocals. Put simply, Jessen's sound is the key to Align's future success. Instead of clouding his tone with layers of effects, grabbing his crotch while trying to rap or continually resorting to expletives as a time-keeping device, Jessen actually sings. His clear voice provides buckets of emotion and he wisely uses dynamics and variation to his advantage. In "Tabs Taken", he switches between menacing croon, bellowed chorus and well-placed shouts, giving the song energy and life. This variation is mirrored in the instruments. For example, during the breakdown, the rhythm section of John McEwen (bass) and Matt Roesch (drums) steps back and rocks on their heels before leaping into the fray again for the closing moments. This provides added force to the releasing crescendo.

A round of applause is also owed to guitarist Matt Payne. Payne skillfully transitions between barred riffing and the stop-start syncopation popular in much of the current heavy music. Unlike many of the current axemen, however, Payne understands the necessity of variety. By adding a quivering whammy-bar to "B.A.M.", Payne avoids bone crushing monotony and gives the track added depth. Also, he is not afraid to use an interesting run instead of continually going for the jugular. This makes songs like "Basement Door" intriguing and insinuating rather than insipid. Similarly, on "Weigh Me Down" the entire band moves to a slower tempo which provides a needed break during the album's otherwise furious pace.

Since this excellent songcraft is something that the more commercial bands can easily appropriate, what else sets Align apart from the maligned bands I mentioned earlier? Two words: genuine emotion. The rough edges in the title track, the gut-wrenching cry in "Bell Curve"; these moments are real, not designed to elicit emotion and expenditure from the masses. These songs have heart, a facet missing from most of what you hear via the mass media. By infusing their music with truth, pacing and diversity, Align have made a forty-minute news broadcast worth hearing.