Metal Underground.com

Yes, you can have too much of a good thing. Case in point, Rhyme's "The Seed And The Sewage," which starts out with an appealing dose of 1990s grunge-metal crunch, and then repeats the same formula to the point that the songs start to feel indistinguishable from each other.

To be fair, the band starts things out well, with "Manimal," a galloping grunge-rocker that gives guitarist Matteo Magni a chance to stretch out with the first of many expert solos on the album. The sense of Southern rock that pervades the solos throughout the album gives some amount of soul to the similar sounding songs.

"The Hangman" starts the trend of diminishing returns, feeling more like a variation on a theme than an actual separate song, partly due to Gabriele Gozzi's vocal line feeling way too close to that of "Manimal."

Granted, there are a few times that the band does vary from the mid-tempo marches. "Slayer To The System" starts out with a speedy drum and guitar part before sliding back into slowness for the chorus. "Nevermore" is also a little faster, which helps it stand out. The Depeche Mode cover "Wrong" wisely features some quiet clean electric guitar before heading back into crunchtown.

All that said, there's only one song that fails the listenability test, the downer "Victim Of Downturn," which is told from the point-of-view of someone about to commit suicide who's "not a coward." The sludgy slowness and the depressing lyrics will have most listeners reaching for the skip button on this one.

I can appreciate the irony of an album by a band named Rhyme feeling repetitive — and I have to admit that, at first, the mid-tempo grunge feel is a welcome one. Still, by the middle of "The Seed And The Sewage," many listeners will get the feeling that this band is a one-trick pony.