Vision of Disorder

V.O.D.'s unique brand of modern hardcore has a certain element of classiness about it that keeps you listening, even if the disc is a bit too lengthy at 50 minutes. While at times the band has an older hardcore sound, I'm reminded of, oddly enough, the first Life of Agony album, which isn't all that bad. The singer can jump from guttural hardcore grunting to a more emotional singing/whining and make it sound fairly tasteful, if not slightly overstated. The rest of the band are certainly adequate at their respective instruments, as demonstrated in the quasi-blues jam of the title track. The band seems to have one toe dipped in the putrid, mouldy, polluted waters of nu-metal; hopefully they will pull that out and keep doing their own thing. If this was about half as long as it is I would be raging about it, but it gets to be a bit much, and there is something about it that annoys me: the slight nu-metal leanings, the vocals and the semi-good, semi-silly lyrics all add up to a slight moat of suspicion between me and the band. However, in a world of rehashed hardcore and Ozzfests, V.O.D. are a breath of fresh air.