The Fallout

by

Default

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In today's music world, new bands are like McDonald's hamburgers...millions served. To find great bands, you have to listen to dozens of CDs or get lucky when you take a flyer on buying a CD. How many times have you heard a song on the radio, bought the CD, and found out that the song on the radio was the ONLY good song? (Well, with web sites like Amazon, you can at least sample the music before you buy it.) After hearing "Wasting my Time" on the radio and sampling the remainder of the tracks here, I knew this was a solid CD.

Default is a new band with an incredibly crisp sound, crossing between hard rock and alternative. I've seen several comparisons to Creed (which I probably wouldn't disagree with) but I really think Default is more of the Candlebox ilk. Candlebox can light it up; so can Default.

The lyrical genius in this band by far is lead guitarist Jeremy James Hora, who can also make the strings sing. But, in the end, who cares if you have great lyrics and music if you don't have a worthy front man? Default has this problem solved many times over! Front man Dallas Smith has an incredible voice that runs the spectrum. I really haven't heard a front man in a long time with the quality of Smith's voice. As another reviewer pointed out, Chad Kroeger of Nickelback is another contributor to the band in several ways: discovery, backing vocals and lyrical collaboration. Of late, Kroeger and Nickelback have proven themselves a top notch band and his contributions here only provides further credence to Kroeger's musical talents.

To the music: most will be familiar with "Wasting my Time," the first radio-bound offering. Default does a great job on this CD of mixing up the hard-driving tracks with the ballads. "Sick and Tired" leads off the CD with an in-your-face hard edge while the very next track "Deny" brings the listener back more toward the ballad (a Creed/3 Doors Down-like sound). The remainder of the CD does justice to the fact that Default has given us something to look forward to: the next CD.

I gave this CD 4 stars as, in most cases, there is room for improvement. However, this is an incredibly outstanding freshman offering from an excellent new band.

Default isn't necessarily without some talent or at least decent songwriting skills, but I think most advanced music fans will accept how replaceable this album is, especially in our time when "rock" and "nu-metal" bands pop out of the woodwork every thirty seconds. Most of the tracks on "The Fallout" are catchy the first time around but serve little if you want something thats going to stick in your memory or make you think.

The musicianship is nothing special, but the band manages to work together to get some decent, radio-friendly songwriting done. The guitarist comes up with some catchy riffs and disposable solos on a few songs but doesn't attempt much more than power chords most of the time, and the bassist and drummer don't really lay down a rhythm section that does any more than keep the beat. Singer Dallas Smith has a decent voice and an impressive holler when he wants to use it, combined with the typical relationship lyrics of newer rock bands. Unfortunately, none of this really rises above the cut thats been set by mediocre at best bands such as Creed and Nickelback, both of which I don't care one bit for, and Default probably won't land themselves much farther than the mark of one-hit wonders 3 Doors Down.

The major mistake that will really kill this album for a lot of listeners is that the three catchiest tunes happen to be the first three tracks on the album, two of which are the bands first singles. "Sick And Tired" rocks with a bit of an edge, "Deny" holds some good yells from singer Dallas Smith, and "Wasting My Time" has a friendly guitar riff and chorus, but most of the songs seem to just drag on with the album after that.

My cup of tea is more of bands such as Tool, KMFDM, Deftones, Stabbing Westward, and Nine Inch Nails, so perhaps I'm being biased, but I just couldn't find much to remember in "The Fallout" other than a few catchy riffs and choruses here and there. If you're a fan of whats "hot" on the radio and have to fit in, by all means, eat it up and follow the herd, if you're trying to have a diverse and expansive music collection, look into it just to say you tried it out, but if you're looking for a vast record with some solidarity and serious songwriting skills, look into Tool's "Lateralus", Stabbing Westwards "Darkest Days", or some Finger Eleven if you're looking to stick somewhat close to the Default mark but with more integrity.