Luke Smith

Daily Arts Writer

At the Drive-in's latest opens with Zach De La Rocha sound-alike growling "must have read a thousand faces." Apparently none of those faces told him to sing.

Musically, At the Drive-in resembles Rage Against the Machine minus the political message and sans the innovative guitar riffs of Tom Morello. And they don't have the driving bass or cavernous drum sound, either. Alright, so their vocalist sounds a lot like De La Rocha, but instead finds himself rambling about pretty much nothing; anything as long as it rhymes.

"Invalid Litter Dept." quietly repeats the line, "Dancing on the corpses ashes, dancing on the corpses ashes," imagine the monotony of that imagery. Especially when followed up by a throat-wrenching primal scream.

"This could last a lifetime, limbs intact, untouched," begins "Enfilade" and the rest of the song continues to talk about making a sacrifice on the railroad tracks and there is apparently a really big freight train coming. Sweet. God this CD does seem to last a lifetime.

At the Drive-in finds itself versatile enough to use two (loose term following) singers on "Rolodex Propaganda." The song is highlighted by the fusing of moog-style keyboards into the rest of the mess of sound that makes up the song.

Heavily influenced by hardcore, occasionally adding pop chord changes, and covering it all in the high pitched rumble of vocal mess, At the Drive-in's latest effort is just an effort. An effort resembling Rubber Neck Syndrome: You drive by a car wreck wanting to look, craning your neck, but instead you're greeted by a police officer saying, "Move it along people, move it along."

There is nothing to see here.

Grade: C-