The first thing I learned about "3 Colours Red" was the fact that they once opened for Marilyn Manson. Strike one. The next factoid I found out about them came from a press clipping which described a band member sheepishly grinning though an alcohol induced mess of puke. These guys apparently live the drunken rock and roll life to an excess, and are proud of it. Strike two, and I hadn't even heard the music yet.

The album begins with "This Is My Time," an interesting choice for the opener. As a soft ballad for the majority of its 4 minutes, it is unlike all but one other song on "Revolt." Even when the amps are turned up part way for the chorus, the noise doesn't approach the usual levels affected by the coloured ones. The orchestration running through the track also adds to the mistaken impression that this song might give a listener insight into "3 Colours Red's" music. It's really unfortunate, because this song is one of the best on "Revolt."

Instead, the majority of the album is spent in a power pop-with-a-punk-edge which largely fails to rise above repetitive, predictable and ultimately boring. The only other nonconformist among the album's 12 tracks is the first single released to radio, "Beautiful Day." Another orchestration enhanced affair, the lovely ballad lives up to its title's promise, even though vocalist Pete Vuckovic (the pukey one) undermines the tone by snidely declaring, "Nothing you can do will change me/ It's a beautiful day."

Once again, it's just too bad the band didn't use a few more tracks like this, because they do it well. That's not to say a decent tune or two can't be found on "Revolt." Every once in a while, the band indulge in a heavy instinct or two, and I get hopeful that they're about to break out of the pop-punk mold. The opening of "Paralyze" features a down and dirty, fuzzy bass, courtesy of Ben Harding, but the song is lessened by a generic shouting chorus that I can easily imagine being done (and done better) by the Offspring or others of that ilk.

The album's closer, "The Age Of Madness," also begins in a heavy vein, with Vuckovic emphatically declaring, "Tension like a wire, on schizophren street/ A man like fire, keeping it discrete/ Age of madness, closing into view/ Corruption of the dearest, ache the bone inside you." Ironically, it's this song that might be closest to the punk spirit, and ends up being one of their better tunes.

In the end, "3 Colours Red" manages to avoid the strikeout (for the record, they're no friend of Marilyn Manson - they were treated like crap by the wanna-be Satanic one), but their "Revolt" falls well short of success.