As I went to study Physics in graduate school, one thing extremely important for my personal career was (and still is) to understand that anyone can write an equation. It's easy, but how about the deeper scientific meaning of it? We can make an analogy here: everyone can name the main features of a Metal genre. But what it means and to understand these features and to make a good musical work on it, with your personality is not as easy as you all can think. "Mesmer", the new album from Australian Metalcore band NORTHLANE, is a good example of what I said above.

Although they have great success in their native country, I just can't understand how this band can be great, because they have strong similarities with other bands in the same style. It's like a heavier and more aggressive version of LINKIN PARK, and it really is a great problem, because they seem similar with many bands of the same genre. Not bad, but nothing beyond a good band. The sound production is very good, indeed. David Bendeth did the production, made the engineering, the mixing, and the mastering, and he gave the band a very good sound quality, keeping it clean in the way that their melodic elements can be absorbed, and with the right amount of weight and aggressiveness to their musical ideas can be understood.

But the band really made a work under their musical talent. It's charming and accessible (in a way that a broader public can enjoy their music), but it lacks a more personalized insight of their work. For now, "Citizen" with its aggressiveness on guitars (and some really accessible moments), the harsh insight used on "Savage", the radio orientated soft song called "Solar", the ethereal moments on "Intuition" (besides the main intent of this song is to sound fast and aggressive), the commercial efforts of "Fade" and of "Veridian" (almost teen Metalcore/New Metal songs) can show how they have musical potential that they didn't knew how to use.

In a personal opinion, they can embrace their New Metal accessible side of their personality and work it on a better way, because they have a great chance of becoming a commercial hit. But for now, they are just like many other bands: common.