POWERMAN 5000

POWERMAN 5000 is like a summer blockbuster movie: loud, flashy, full of effects and spectacle, but when you're done, you barely remember any of it.

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The band's third album (or fourth, if you count The Blood Splat Rating System, the indie release that later mutated into their Dreamworks debut, Mega!! Kung-Fu Radio, as a separate record) picks up right where 1999's Tonight The Stars Revolt left off, with huge production, pile-driving rhythms, and a heavy, relentless sound. "Bombshell", the album's first single, is a perfect example of what POWERMAN does best: it just grabs you from the start and propels you along on a wave of industrial-metal pyrotechnics.

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But like STATIC-X, another band of undeniable power, there's little beneath the surface of POWERMAN's glitzy sound. Listen a little more closely to "Bombshell" and you'll find that the lyrics don't seem to even make sense. While several of the songs work as fist-pumping, pit-inducing anthems ("Wake Up", "Danger Is Go"),there never seems to be any real soul at work here. The sci-fi and apocalyptic leanings are merely for "cool" effect: Rob Zombie, older brother of PM5K frontman Spider One, at least projects a real fan's enthusiasm for the horror/trash culture trappings he drapes his own music in.

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Anyone For Doomsday? is far from a bad record. In fact, it's great, high-energy modern metal that rocks very hard and consistently. It's also a no-frills effort that makes its point in 33 minutes — quite a daring move in these days of bloated, 70-minute albums. But you will be listening to it five years from now — or even six months from now? That seems highly unlikely.