The Cardinal Effect's debut album is a surprisingly assured intermingling of mainstream metal (imagine
Korn or
Linkin Park with the hip-hop elements excised) with brief flashes of screamo and European-style black metal for color. Though all of these styles of music can be lumped under the generic metal banner, there is in fact a fair amount of stylistic difference, and this kind of mash-up runs the risk of sounding about as natural and entertaining as a duet between
Jessica Simpson and
Jack White. However, the Cardinal Effect wisely keep to the mainstream for the most part, using the more extreme forms sparingly on songs like the anthemic "Cottonstar" and dispensing with them entirely on the pointedly radio-ready rocker "Tides" and the semi-power ballad "Press Your Eyes." In a way, the effect is rather close to what
Radiohead managed with
OK Computer, taking on the superficial trappings of culty musical styles but remaining resolutely conventional underneath. ~ Stewart Mason