Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Out of the Trilogy, “System One . . .” is the one most like a regular hard rock album. All of the songs except a couple bonus tracks were written and performed by Criss Angel’s band when they were playing out around New York City. The first track, “Come Alive,” was written many years ago, but it’s sure stood the test of time! It’s also one of the best tracks on the album. Think Linkin Park meets early KoRn with a dash of System of a Down and Tool. Combining rap, melodic metal, weird spoken word sections and industrial shouted vocals in one song, it takes you on quite the ride. 

“Procreation” is another track that DEMANDS your attention. Again there are a lot of different styles happening here, but as a whole it’s an awesome song. It also has some lyrics that will show up on later albums as actual songs. “Die For You” has some unusual keyboard and hip hop scratch effects to accompany a slow song with serious lyrics and a semi-Goth sound and theme. This one reminded me a lot of Type O Negative. 

The balance of the songs follow about the same pattern of hard rock with some different genres added for emphasis and even full orchestrations backing a few of them. I consider this as a totally stand alone rock album in the Trilogy, although the others hold their own. A bonus track called “Metamorphosis” is heard first on this album, but manages to find its way onto all the albums in the “System Trilogy,” as well as the “Mindfreak” soundtrack, so it becomes very familiar. That’s not a bad thing and it’s not a bad song. Call it a heads up so if you get the collection you don’t wonder if you have the wrong album!