Rating: NNN
If this weren’t clearly a soundtrack to the latest filmic adaptation of a favourite Marvel comic book, you’d be tempted to think it was a primer distributed by Clear Channel to guide its programmers to a perfect alt-rock top-40 lineup. This is pure guitar-driven cock rock for the 18-to-35 set, target-marketed mixology. All the usual suspects are represented: Drowning Pool, Puddle of Mudd, Nickelback, Seether and so on. Highlight moments like Queens of the Stone Age’s cover of Never Say Never (“I might like you better if we slept together”) and Seether’s collaboration with Amy Lee on Broken entirely make up for the sappier balladry of Trapt’s Lost In A Portrait and Smile Empty Soul’s Finding Myself.
