A safe buy rather than an essential one.

Third studio album from Leigh Kakaty's Michigan outfit sees the band evolve into a more rounded mature and infinitely more eclectic outfit. Gone are the clichéd throwaway metal anthems like 'Bosses Daughter' or 'Epitaph' that peppered 2011's 'War Of Angels', replaced instead by less obvious songs imbued with greater longevity.

The metallic edge still exists on the opening salvo of 'Goodbye My Friend' and 'Deal With The Devil', but there's a greater dynamism this time around as a result of Kakaty's Hetfield style growl and the accompanying guitar work. Elsewhere the superb rap drenched metal of 'Trenches' offers another side to the band, whilst the downbeat 'Torn To Pieces' is Pop Evil's spin on The Red Hot Chili Peppers (as is 'Silence And Scars'). 'Divide' and 'Beautiful' would fit easily onto the last couple of Papa Roach albums and 'Fly Away' could easily be culled from a recent Shinedown offering.

Herein lies the problem; on one hand this is an excellent modern rock album and yet on the other hand it lacks its own identity, seemingly borrowing ideas from other band's modern rock or otherwise. The less instant nature of the album, a positive from my point of view, simply means that you have to listen to this album on a cellular level and that you become hypersensitive, noticing sections that sound like they've already been recorded by other bands.

If you can get over this 'Onyx', although flawed, remains a safe buy rather than an essential one.

Mike Newdeck