After seven albums drumming for the Rollins band, drummer Jason Mackenroth decided it was time to do things on his own. Under the name Mack, his self-titled rocker is decidedly less aggressive than anything he recorded with the Rollins band, but it’s still got a fair amount of grit.

Handling vocals for the first time, and keeping with the drums, he recruited John Kuker and Jaques Wait to handle all the guitar and bass work over these nine songs. After really giving the album a shot though, it seems that he would have been better just sticking with Rollins Band, as these songs all fit right into the category of radio rock. There’s some spots where the guitar playing takes a turn for the soulful and bluesy, but for the most part, the riffing and progressions are lazy and lacking any sort of power whatsoever.

“Torn in Two” has some really strong riffing and rollicking rhythms towards the end of the song, the rare instance where everything works well together. The vocals have a real classic rock feel to it, and the track is overall one of the only memorable ones. Right after that, however, “Lost” exemplifies the problems that really reoccur with this record. The slow tempo track packs on layers of distortion, but that’s all you can hear is that distortion. Not individual riffs, not the bass, not the drumming, just some fuzz and unnecessarily wailed vocals. Only towards the end does the guitar work break away from the mundane to add some solid albeit flamboyant riffing. There’s just too much excess all around.

The band needs to trim the elements of the music they threw in to make it epic; it’s just not going to fly otherwise. “Going for the Thrill” is another song that just as easily could have been omitted completely, as the tired rhythms and lack of instrumental clarity really hurt things. Nitpicking aside, overall, it's just boring music.

If you’re looking for just one track to set itself from the pack, “Mystified” is what you want, as it’s much slower and groove driven than anything else you’ll find, and for that, it’s actually rather enjoyable, albeit still somewhat uninspired. If nothing else, at least there’s no big forced chorus, there’s no out of place wailing, and there’s no soloing for the sake of soloing. It is troublesome though, that any joy sought from the album has to be relegated to a track that’s only enjoyable because it doesn’t pander to the sound that everything else does.

Stick to the Rollins Band, nothing else needs to be said.