Sick City

Some music makes you want to dance. Some music makes you want to shake your fist in the air and sing along. Some music does both. Sick City's debut full-length, Nightlife, does neither.

While the Winnipeg band's first effort is certainly a well-polsihed effort, no amount of gloss would be able to cover up a lack of creativity which, at its best, is nothing more than a checklist of various flavors of the month. Check it out.

Stadium rock guitar peppered with metal/hardcore moments -- check. Look no further than "In the Millions." The band can throw in as much metal influence as they want, but Josh Youngston's emo crooning is going to make it as forgettable as it is brief.

Calling your music evil and melodic -- check. "We like to say that our music is 60% evil 40% pop. Kind of a joke, but actually very accurate," says singer Josh Youngston. Actually, Josh, that whole statement is a joke.

Blatant desire to appeal to "the scene's" fashion sense -- check. The photo accompanying the promo release of the CD features ripped jeans, Vans slip-ons, a scarf, one full-length sleeve tattoo, a tie and one dude in nothing but jeans and a black shirt to hold down some cred.

Big choruses to encourage just enough toe-tapping and sing-alongs ('Moving, Not Moving Forward') to make the listener forget that they've heard it before, only better -- check.

Smooth singing with occasional background screams -- check.

Nightlife is, at its best, melodic hard rock with enough emo vocals and hardcore guitar moments to warrant a review on a website with "punk" in its title. Our genre is extremely flexible in terms of what fits inside it, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. Might I suggest we draw it wherever Sick City is standing?