Cancer Conspiracy

These guys used to be an East Coast hardcore band and are now attempting to express their "heaviness” in a more soulful fashion with this album. And the first song, "...To Sleep” is a nice try, an almost Enya-like ambient soundscape, but then again, it sounds exactly like what it is: young guys too used to expressing their emotions through sheer volume, struck a bit shy or embarrassed by the more complex feelings entailed within a subtler approach. They quickly regress to their fallback position of playing louder, harder and faster, however, and much of the rest of the album is in this vein. While some of it starts to get interesting, the Cancer Conspiracy seem unsure whether to deepen the intensity with (regretfully few) returns to the mellower vibe, or to simply rock out. There is an entertaining "letter” from a "Dr. Travis John, PhD” in the liner notes warning the band members that their name, as a metaphor supposedly used to be an indictment of the music industry and pop radio in general, could bring the wrath of certain secret government agencies down upon them. If only the music contained on the disc actually delivered on this "threat” to established music conventions it claims to represent.