Artist: Dead Poetic Album: New Medicines Label: Solid State Records Rating: 5 out of 10

Dead Poetic’s debut album, Four Wall Blackmail, was alternately aggressive, edgy and beautiful, but it was never remotely commercial. So where did New Medicines – which seems to have rolled right off the emo/screamo assembly-line record labels are running on “high” these days – come from? What happened to the band that turned out raw and unclassifiable songs like “August Winterman” and “A Green Desire”? Well, you could blame the shift on producer Aaron Sprinkle. Though Sprinkle has occasionally branched out into heavier territory, he often works with artists striving for more of an accessible, mainstream sound than you’d expect Dead Poetic to want. So it’s not terribly surprising that the guitars here are of a radio-ready, processed variety that renders them inoffensive, and the rhythm section stays in the background “where they belong.” And the harmonies – oh, the harmonies. Every time Dead Poetic starts to rock out a little and some good screams break through the wall of melody, a big, harmony-laden chorus kicks in, stacking Pro Tools-perfect vocal upon vocal until there’s not a hint of urgency or real energy left. He was indeed the man behind the boards, so you could blame Sprinkle. But in the end, it’s the five members of Dead Poetic that let their sound become so toothless. They sung those harmonies, strummed those over-processed guitars, and delivered song after song with titles that are far more interesting (“Modern Morbid Prophecies,” “A Hoax to Live For”) than any of the music or melodies contained therein. But the news isn’t all bad for fans. In the tradition of recent hard rock albums, the first three or four songs here are the strongest. On “Vanus Empty,” melodic-punk guitars clash with throat-shredding vocals, there’s a nice hook, and even a heavy breakdown. Equally-effective is title track and first single “New Medicines,” which pairs powerful, stop-start verses with a catchy chorus. On that song, frontman Brandon Rike sings, “These are the words that tear you apart.../ I’m not in the business of faking to please vain opposers/ A dead legion of new cloned followers.” Rike’s probably completely sincere, but you can’t help but wonder if Dead Poetic has become just another one of those followers, blissfully unaware of their clone status even as New Medicines classifies them as such. All of that said, New Medicines is certainly not a bad record. It’s very capably performed and recorded and was obviously created with some measure of passion on Dead Poetic’s part. But this type of music should reach out and grab you by the throat – you should feel the anger, or the pain, or at least...something. But in the end, New Medicines doesn’t make you feel anything at all, and that’s it’s greatest sin. – Todd Thatcher