SPEKTRUM OF DOOM is a group from New York City, formed in 2009 and inspired from acts across the music spectrum. It shows in their daring attempt to combine Metal with elements of Hip-Hop and Electronic music, but the final result is mostly underwhelming.

Now don't get me wrong, I can appreciate where the band is coming from. It takes risks like this to make innovation in music, and Joey and Jesse are proof that fans of Metal aren't necessarily fans of Metal only, with references to AC/DC, A TRIBE CALLED QUEST, and WU-TANG CLAN amidst their pinch harmonic-laced riffs. I wouldn't even say the album is without decent moments, but for every decent lyric there are about three or four that just fall flat on their face, and the muddy tone of the riffs makes them very forgettable.

Of course, the focus of the music is more on the percussion and vocals, but he lyrical fare on songs like "Ride To Suicide," "At Satan's Church," and "ZoTaR" is often so derivative that its almost silly. Granted, ANTHRAX weren't especially mind blowing with the words to "I'm The Man", but the difference is the latter band exudes a real presence in their delivery, and these guys...don't, really. I don't even know whether or not to take them seriously with lines like "Got a monkey on my back / Motherf***er weighs a ton". I can stomach the fact that the vocals are mostly rapped, alternated with some generic (though not terrible) growls, as well as the fact that they don't use real percussion, since there are Extreme Metal bands that do the same thing. But the Dubstep/electronic sound effects that pop up from time to time just don't fit, and occur far too often. Guitar leads are almost non-existent, and while nobody says that a band needs them, they would have been much more preferable to the aforementioned sonic tomfoolery.

I'm pretty sure that this is the weirdest review I've ever written, and I've heard some strange things in my day. Maybe in ten years, when this style of music revolutionizes the industry, people will laugh at my review the way people today do about critics who predicted THE BEATLES would never amount to anything. But I think I'll take my chances. There are some solid moments, but there's just not enough to really hold the listener's attention for the album's duration. I respect SPEKTRUM OF DOOM for trying to mix the album's variety of influences into something unique, but they don't really do any of them well enough to make this album that worthwhile.