Brainstorm

Forget that this album starts off in a fairly promising Maiden/second tier Bay Area thrash mode before degenerating into cheesy Euro-power metal, complete with Styx and Europe style ballads. Forget the utter inanity and mullet-tude of lyrical masterpieces like "Crush Depth," "Tear Down the Walls" and "Demonsion." Pay no mind to the utterly bad paintings of the "demons hanging at the gates of hell" that make up the visual aspect of this mess. No. Why this album really bites sweaty gym socks is because it's so heartless. Ambiguity possesses no emotion; the music is delivered with all the enthusiasm of a single mom serving Denny's breakfast at 3 a.m. The gang vocals are laughably unthreatening and I can just picture these guys live: five expressionless mops of hair breaking out tired metal poses and stage moves as they play their meandering offal.