While this definitely proved to be a challenging listen (and review), I also found it to be one of those albums that requires a couple listens to really sink in. On the upside, the band seems to benefit from a fairly slick production job that seems to achieve somewhat of that “dirty” rock and roll tone. Alpha certainly does not suffer from any lack of originality. Through much of this album, Such a Surge exhibit the tendency to play around with their sound quite regularly, and while I hesitate to call out any formulated song writing, common traits found in many of these pieces include tranquil passages, backing vocals and most frequently, aggressive choruses. The singing style on Alpha though is personally not my cup of tea, because the vocalist is often times rapping (in German) more so than singing. Whether you are a fan of this or not, you have to admit there cannot be much in the way of international appeal with this style. The other problem I have with this record is the inability to maintain a consistent flow. Often times it seems just when the band hits a nice groove, they venture off into some strange modernized rut. For a rock record like this to be most effective, some of the songs need to be catchy and that is just not the case here as I highly doubt you will find yourself humming these tunes any time soon. While songs like “Waz Jetzt?” and “O.K.” contain some crafty hard rock flourishes, and “Nachtaktiv” appears to be a nice atmospheric piece, the bottom line is that there are just not enough memorable moments. I cannot see myself bringing this disc out every often, if ever again at all. For those of you looking for an offbeat, modernized rock record though, have at it.

written by Joe Grammatico

Playing time: 48.43