SHAKRA

Vocalist Mark Fox has such an odd, raspy voice, it takes you a minute to realize Switzerland's SHAKRA are actually a metal band. He's kinda got that wheezy Joe Elliot thing going on (minus the million-dollar production, obviously),which combines with the slightly more modern feel of opening track "Chains of Temptation" to fall closer to current radio rock than expected from an underground European group.

But textbook barnstormers like "Walk On Water" and "Out of Control" places the band back in the metal camp, if only for a moment. Both are relatively hard-driving songs with a delectable chorus and nice soloing. In fact, if more of "Fall" fell into this groove of charismatic, but pedestrian, borderline metal, it might be worth putting on the shopping list. Somewhere toward the bottom, but at least on the list.

But limp AOR crap like "How It Feels" and "Immortal" send the album spiraling into mediocrity. Fox just doesn't have the voice to carry a ballad, and even if he did, the songs are bland, and the production about as plain-vanilla as it gets. The band would align themselves firmly with the likes of DEF LEPPARD or TNT, if they had the chops and the budget to do it right.

The slightly more modern take on AOR that SHAKRA utilize on songs like "She's My Ecstasy" and "Take Me Now" (who titled these songs, PRETTY BOY FLOYD?) is their main stock in trade. No matter what trick SHAKRA attempts to pull out of their sleeve, though, they just end up giving off a second-rate vibe of a sound that's got a pretty small cult following to begin with. Even a track that would rock in the hands of another band, like "Do You Know", suffers from anemic drum tracks and unconvincing vocals. Imagine this song in the hands of, say, "Metal Heart"-era ACCEPT, and SHAKRA's flaws become even more evident.

Less discriminating fans of AXXIS or PINK CREAM 69 might dig this album, but the rest of the world is gonna keep turning just fine without. Not terrible, just completely irrelevant.