MIRRORPLAIN is an Alternative Rock/Metal band based out of Germany. The sextet just released their second album, titled "Lost in Paradise," which contains eleven new tracks. Alternative Metal arose mainly in the 90's...a spawn of Grunge if you will. It rose to prominence and then sort of disappeared. Lately, it has been making a comeback in the music industry. Let's get to the album to see what MIRRORPLAIN has to offer the community.

"Northstar" leads us off, with a simple riff and the soft, pensive vocals of Döring. The keys in the background are a nice addition. Soon, he roars with power, and the song has a lamenting quality to it. "Speak to the Deaf" is another mid-tempo song with a nice keyboard presence. Döring really stretches out here but the riff isn't doing much to pick up the song. "No. 1-0-7" is faster in its delivery, but again it suffer from the "mid-temp" blues. "Judgement Day" opens with soft acoustical guitars and a darkness you cannot escape from. Unfortunately it is another mid-tempo song. Varying the pace even a little would make for a more enjoyable listening experience.

"Lost in Paradise" opens with soft and pretty acoustical guitars, and a nice lead guitar passage. The vocals are calm and flowing, sung in the lower ranges at first. The main riff comes in again, and it's lumbering. Bass guitar notes can be heard pretty easily. "Listen Up" is slightly faster in pace. It has a bit more "get-up-and-go" but overall it fails to impress yet again. "Drown" is more of the same. I feel like each track could be interchanged with another and it wouldn't make much of a difference.

I don't often take this approach with a review, but the final three tracks sound as the rest of the album does. They are going for dark and brooding, which they reached...but the album did not offer much variance in sound, nor much for the genre in general. If they took some steps towards finding their own sound, that would be the first big thing to separate themselves from the thousands of bands out there doing the same thing. The good news is, they are young, so this is possible. As it stands, I would not recommend the album.