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Oh, boy, have I put off reviewing this one. Burned in Effigy are a new band playing a rather subdued, down to Earth style of Pantera-esque groove metal that I just don't like that much at all. I wonder what possesses bands to make albums like this one. It's not particularly exciting, innovative, emotional, fast, slow or anything. It's just a really dull, tedious exercise in monotonous grooves and pseudo-classic Metal influences that don't really hinder or aid the music in any way. The guitar tone is big and chunky and the riffs are present, but none of them captivate. It is very long, and you can tell that the musicians involved were at least trying, but there are no standout tracks here at all, and you will lose interest within a few songs if you're actually trying to listen to this and not just leaving it on as background music. The vocals trade off between an uninspired hard rock croon and a lame Lamb of God-style yapping that only serves to annoy. The songs all conform to a uniformly sterile groove, with none of them sticking out in any way at all. The dry, lifeless production doesn't help at all.

The thing is, I don't even think this band could get popular playing this type of music. People always assume that a band doing this kind of thing is trying to ride on Pantera's diminished wave, but that doesn't seem to be working out for Burned in Effigy. This album has no hooks whatsoever, and it doesn't really seem to be trying to achieve anything. It just...is. Oh, and did you notice how the album starts and ends with short songs entitled "Juggernaut"? It's oddly symbolic, considering that this album goes nowhere at all. Burned in Effigy are just not a good band, and while I won't write them off completely yet, I can't say I am too eager to hear their next album at the moment.