Hello Temple, today I'm bringing to you "Monster Man" by FLAYED. This is only the second album by the French band, but these guys are nowhere near to being newcomers in the business. With several hundred gigs under their belt - split between all of the members - they play some mature Rock that tends to hit the spot.

The album opens up with "Release The Fever", which packs a nice enough guitar solo to rope you into the rhythm right away. The melody is interesting and the beat is fast enough, but it feels like it's missing that one hook to keep you engaged.

Following this is the title track "Monster Man", which is probably the most fun of the album. With a SKA kind of sound minus the trumpets, it hooks you with an enjoyable sound. There is also a pretty good amount of keyboard on this track as an under layer of the melody.

The next three songs, though all feel pretty much the same. "No Surrender", "Stanced" and "Up Above" are good Rock pieces, but I forgot the melody pretty much right after. We still find the right amount of grit, but not enough change in tone or melody to get it stuck in your head.

"Novel" on the other hand was interesting. The slow beat and gripping melody of this song bundled with a good vocal play by Renato redeemed this album a bit for me right here. They definitely have something to offer when you take this song as a model example.

The one song that finally gets a good hook is "Unfairly Pure". You need this for a good Rock song in my opinion, a gripping hook that everyone can end up singing along at shows and parties. The guitar player was on point here with many solos and great riffs. All of this makes it the best song of the album from my point of view.

This is a fair album, I rather enjoyed it, but in my opinion, it was rather forgettable. Nothing really caught my attention enough to warrant more listens following this review; but it might catch yours. I'm not hugely impressed, but it was an enjoyable moment.