Featured review by:
UG Team, on november 29, 2005
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
Sound: The debut album of Allele "Point Of Origin" has the sticker on the CD warning you -? this band features former Otep and Cold guitarists -? Lane Maverick and Kelly Hayes. Which seems promising even before putting the disk in your CD player.
The music obviously has the influence both Maverick and Hayes brought as the band don't stay too far from the vein of Cold and Otep. The album kicks off strong, giving the tone for the rest of the CD -? "Fake" gives a good start with a heavy riff straight from both guitars storming your ears. Things slow down a bit in the following "A Different Someone," turning into restrained, partly mellow hard rock. The third track "Closer To Habit" is the band's first single -- a catchy song, thanks to its melodic sing-along chorus. There are some morose gloomy ballads with dark mystic mood -? like "Lost In Your Words" with pure guitar sound in the beginning. Though it's hard to say whether it's a ballad as all songs are something close to a hard-rock ballad in one or another way. "Unknown" has a great guitar solo and the song creates a wonderful atmosphere, differing from others.
There are two very skill-wised guitarists in the band and Allele takes a whole advantage of it. The work of two of them, the chemistry they have in between is truly astounding and a pleasure to listen to. They create an original and solid sound filled with catchy guitar hooks. Guitar-driven music and solid rock drums keep you involved in the album even at the point, where most albums of this egnre turn into a bore. Most tracks are a bit generic and sound like a lot of music out there, without any standouts. But the last excellent instrumental, being a perfect closing track, gives you a hope the band's got more potential, than shown in the album. // 7
Lyrics and Singing: Vocalist Wally Wood sings in a calm and powerful voice, expressing tons of emotions at the same time. The manner of singing is close to Staind's Aaron Lewis, but being melodic, it doesn't sound whinning, which I'm quite happy about. Even when he screams he can actually define the words. Backing vocals don't appear often, but fit the music very well, being at the most melodic part of it.
As most lyrics of bands of this genre, Allele's songs are sad and sometimes depressing. Though there's always a hope somewhere behind. Songs leave you guessing what they wanted to say by "You shoot the sky with lies/It become unfaithful/Open your eyes till they finally close/Revealed the truth and I've become unstable." // 8
Impression: The album is made of emotions, that needed to get out, but instead of that had been put into music. As the musicians have some pretty good roots and experience, the band's debut album is very well-composed and solid in general. "Point Of Origin" is quite smooth, without any hard edges and ambitions: 10 brooding radio-friendly songs, facing the today's youth moods.
Unfortunatelly, that's the desease of most bands now -? having signed the contract with a record company, they are forced to sound like many popular (means "proved" for a record label) bands, and thus loose their individuality. These bands make money for record labels. And only those, who are strong enough to play music of their own, make names and music. // 8
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