IMAGINE

How does one ruin a mildly interesting prog-metal group? By throwing in a superfluous, corn-ball vocalist who sounds like a relic from the late '80's-- belting out terrible lyrics with castrati charisma and a voice that sounds like a bizarre mix of James Labrie, Steve Perry and Brad Delp.

Seriously, any credibility Stride had as serious, artistic musicians goes out the window as soon as their new front man Gary Berlin begins crooning Alive, a feel-good anthem that demands to be retroactively added to the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or any of the million-and-one montage scenes in those '80's teen movies.

Seriously though, adding a singer was an odd decision for this otherwise very talented group; their previous Music Machine may have lacked any new ideas but at least it was a fine display of potential-- this is just goofy. To the band's credit, they have found a much higher production with this release, making their few moments of instrumental excellence sound better than before; there is some genuinly intersting axe-work going on here. Of course, these few passages of serious playing are thrown out the window when it comes time to roll down the windows, put on the your raban sunglasses and sing-along to the laughably cheesy vocals.

At least it has camp value.

Songwriting: 2 Instrumental Performances: 3 Lyrics/Vocals: 2 Style/Emotion/Replay: 1