Year after year, I keep expecting a good heavy metal record that would proudly put the Judas style back into full motion; and every year (starting just last year actually!) Benedictum has given me that hope, so when I received another heavy/power/rock album like ANSOBFTS (A New Shade Of Black For The Soul… I love acronyms!) I can only get excited with the idea that good old heavy metal could be returning to the front lines; so in that note this UK band those help reinforce the aging troops, but sadly it doesn’t carry enough aggression or fun in order to play a key role in the rejuvenation process the genre so desperately needs, still Rise to Addiction incorporates some interesting aspects that could distinguish them in the long run.

The album carries a solid heavy metal foundation that tends to blend a little with some grunge like vocals, not all the time but the performance of Mr. Oates is not your typical, mellow yet powerful approach; he uses a more angry, dirty yet very understandable sound, that provides some personality to this new outfit, something that is critical when you release your first album… to have something easy to recognize and build a personal sound that the listener can later call your trademark.

Despite having and obvious musical advantage to many other heavy metal bands out there, Rise to Addiction tends to use a similar formula through out the entire 59 minutes of playing time, and it grows so old on you as soon as it hits track 4; that doesn’t mean the music is bad, or simplistic, but the mellow segments, followed by hard rocking fast paced riffs and them coming back to the mellow slow segment gets very repetitive and makes the songs sound similar to one another, there are of course two songs that might soften you up when it comes to this debut, but the majority of them are just well done, well played, amazingly recorded but boring heavy metal tracks that could use some more energy and one important factor that heavy metal has always had, fun, heavy metal is supposed to be fun, and I think that’s where Rise to Addiction failed. Despite my negative words the bands sounds like they have a nice future, their musical quality is amazing, and in due time they might just right one song that could be remember as a heavy anthem, well see, but for now, I think I’ll stick to Benedictum and Judas Priest to accompany me during my long drives to work.