ASKING ALEXANDRIA continue to distance themselves from their Metalcore roots with their 7^th full length offering, "See What's On the Inside," their second album having rekindled with past frontman Danny Worsnop. Following on from their last album, the band further places themselves into the radio-friendly, overproduced Rock vibe. I am all for bands developing and changing their sound, but this move has become a formulaic choice made my far too many used-to-be-Metal bands that it no longer feels like an authentic maturation.

"Alone Again" follows the orchestral Intro track, nods to Hardcore music with the straightforward drum beat and simplistic repeated riffs contrast the choruses, with their use of clean vocals and operatic string sections. At the Two Minute fifty mark there is a nice tempo change coming off the back of a howling high pitched guitar solo, before ending on back on the symphonic motif of the choruses.

The "Never Gonna Learn" whistling vocals add a whimsical effect to the music, this song has an overall fun feel to it, with a headbanging chorus and stripped back verses, it features a fun drum build up into a guitar solo breakdown, and the double bass heavy ending straight back into the whistling is a nice effect.

"If I Could Erase It" sounds as if it has been lifted straight from BRING ME THE HORIZON's "That's The Spirit", it's definitely one of the heavier songs on the album, but also one of the blander, the most enticing part being some of the screamed vocal delivery.

The hymnal gang vocals accompanied by hard hitting drums at the beginning of track 7 make for an excellent intro, although this high energy is quickly zapped and every time it feels like the song is building back into that level of vigor it drops out again, leaving me feeling very deflated - an issue I also had with "Misery Loves Company," fantastic intro that the rest of the song can't live up to. The modulation on the snare gives the last minute of "You've Made It This Far" some nice flavour, it feels very groovy in comparison to the rest of the album.

Whilst there are some pretty great passages in this album, they are few and far between, with most of the songs merging together in an underwhelming fashion. It is 'overproduced' in the way that there is very little human element, leaving the songs feeling unnatural and programmed, and each song sounded like something you've heard many times before. It is certainly easy listening, so if you're after a clean, simple rock album with some metal elements, this will be great for you.