Metal Underground.com

Delivering punk-infused metal with a pop sheen, Dead Men Dreaming's "Impure Thoughts" effortlessly blends rock genres to create music that would be equally home in both drive-time radio, your local skate park, and a club mosh pit.

The band may be five guys from New York, but the first sound you hear on "Chemicals," the disc's opener, is a left-coast beach rock riff that reminded me of something you'd hear on a Sheryl Crow album. Then, the song shifts gears (and coasts) into a punk riff that'd be at home in the hallowed halls of CBGB, with metal elements weaving their way in.

Guitarists Anthony Bordonaro and Paul Riccobono start "Your Last Day" with a metal riff that twists into punk territory for the verses and back into metal (complete with squealing harmonics) after the choruses. Bordonaro then busts out a pure metal solo that dovetails back into the punk riffs.

Singer Mike Triana has a great sense of melody and uses his vocal range well. The vocals are clean, crisp, and oh-so-perfectly double-tracked in some of the choruses. Triana also plays a mean piano, providing welcome gravitas in the ballad "Odds Against," which has some subtle but interesting time shifts early on — and a huge one at the end, as our ballad shifts into punk-metal mayhem.

Somewhat less successful is "Upside Down," in which the keyboards and guitars don't quite gel. It's not a bad track, but it is the weakest on the disc. Still, the band does throw some interesting twists and a brutal riff in midway through.

The disc closes with the title track, "Impure Thoughts," which features an opening riff that reminds me quite a bit of latter-day Motorhead. Drummer Dima Shnaydman turns in his best performance here, shifting from the brutal beginning to a break with clean guitars and then back into metal mode.

With "Impure Thoughts," Dead Men Dreaming has created a five-song rock record that seamlessly blends genres, melding pop with the mosh pit.