Damage – Velocity / 2005 Damage Records / 10 Tracks / http://www.damagetheband.com / Reviewed 01 July 2005

The music that Damage plays is a general brand of pop-rock, with tracks like “Take It Or Leave It” mixing the guitar assault of Rage Against The Machine with a vocal mixture incorporating Blind Melon as much as it does Alice In Chains. Thus, when tracks like “Systematic” come on, one can hear the band trying their hardest to get proper airplay on Clearchannel stations, but even the track’s Mustaine-like vocals can’t do much to obscure the fact that the music is largely chaff. Even when the band decides to slow down the tempo and try to reach a different audience (Cryin All The Time), there is nothing much to maintain a listener’s focus.

The strings on the track may be the only thing that one can point to as the reason why this disc hasn’t been ignored by the point. The vocals of Michael, especially during the aforementioned “Cryin All The Time”, really shows someone that wishes ey was back in the hair-metal heyday, instead of trying to do this shtick fifteen or twenty years later. However, even if the vast majority of “Velocity” might not do much to excite Damage’s listeners, the note-by-note Megadeth-like track “The Show” may just be the cure for the early-disc ennui. The pop of the drums, coupled with the shredding guitars makes “The Show” the first real bright spot on the disc. Stringing together some cohesion, it is during “Floating” that Damage is able to find their own sound and finally break away from the influences that have really hindered more than helped the band throughout the disc.

While there is no flaw to be found with the instrumentation during the track, the lack of vocal power found on the track is the only blemish to something that is fairly compelling. Damage begins to backslide during “Johnnie Walker”, a track that really feels as if the band has just been stuck on repeat for four and a half minutes, and the rest of the fare on “Velocity” does not really do much to properly end the disc. The mastering and general sound is solid throughout, but there is really no need for this when the band has already created enough barriers around themselves to ensure that listeners will not make the necessary connections to the band. Perhaps if the band is captured in another style (live?) this problem will by and large be diminished, but it looms large on “Velocity”.

Top Tracks: Floating, The Show

Rating: 3.9/10