What is this, James Hetfield's Poppy, Alternative Hard Rock side project?! Admittedly, the singer Johnny Law sounds like James Hetfield on some of the songs on this album, and has a very Hetfield-ish sound to his voice and I got to say, I like that.

Now I realize not everyone likes 90s METALLICA but this album, "City of Angels" has some similarities to the "Load" and "ReLoad" albums, but there's enough differences to make this band sounds like a completely different band to METALLICA.

WARNER DRIVE is an Alternative Hard Rock band from California who started Rocking in 2010 and continues by playing 200 to 250 shows a year. Their debut album, "FL: What Does That Stand For?" was produced by Mike Clink, who has worked with the likes of GUNS N ROSES, MOTLEY CRUE and MEGADETH, and James Michael, who has worked with the likes of ALANIS MORISSETTE, THE DEFTONES and SIXX:AM, which is a great way to kick off a first release given the big names their producers have worked with. But the new album, "City of Angels" was produced by Aaron "El Hefe" Abeyta of the band NOFX and is the band's third full length album and boy, is it a good one.

The album kicks off with the track "Rising from the Fallen" which, like every opening track should do, somewhat sums up the entire album, but there are other tracks on the album which are way more enjoyable than this track, but a great song none the less.
The second track is the title track, "City of Angels" and the singer's Hetfield-ish sound really comes out in this song, mainly in the verses, but the vocal similarities aside, this song is incredibly well put together, as it has a great set of lyrics and a brilliant hook. Although, the hook in this song isn't as good as the third track, "Boys N Girls" which, much like the title track, is well written and has a catchy chorus.
The fourth track doesn't piss about as it kicks in pretty quickly and strengthens my view of this band's ability to write songs, as this song also has quite a catchy vocal line in the chorus and even the verses have some great lyrics, as they just slip right off the singer's tongue.

The album doesn't take many twists and turns, but isn't very samey either which I think is great balance of variety. Some songs are a little darker, like track five, "Open Our Eyes" then track seven, "King of Swing" which is another of the more upbeat songs on the album.

On the whole, the album is a great effort and is really well written in terms of both the music and lyrics and I plan on giving this band's other albums a listen because, damn they're good.<