Brand New Sin

The splash sticker reels in the listener with the promise that if you like COC or Black Label Society, you’re going to love these guys. But the difference is that COC rock all the time and BLS some of the time — Brand New Sin are more of a downer than anything. Sounding more like some kind of modern rock band, these guys are pretty rippin’ when they turn up the tempo and bring their admittedly quite heavy Southern/modern hybrid to something approaching a good time. But a lot of this falls into that strange category of music that makes no sense to listen to, where it just meanders on in a down tuned bog of boredom and depression, like the new Brides of Destruction or, hell, half of what is being played on the radio these days. And the worst part is easily the vocals: grunge is, thankfully, dead, so there’s no excuse for guys sounding like Eddie Vedder anymore. If Brand New Sin eliminated those horrifying vocals and tuned up a bit, this could be a killer rock band. As is, run to the hills. A friend gravely commented that it sounded like Gruntruck, and I couldn’t sum it up better than that.