Metal Underground.com

There's nothing quite like an electric guitar used properly — and boy does The Venting Machine's Jeremy Epp wield his ax mightily in the opening of "Devil's Mouthwash," the first track on the band's "A Death To Your Scene." That opening note, with Epp's pick audibly scraping the strings, snapped me to attention instantly, and Epp and the rest of the band kept me listening intently for the 48 minutes that followed.

The band's sound is a combination of thrash and metalcore that I found enjoyable, if occasionally a little overdone on the screaming front.

Epp's guitar playing is definitely the star of this show. My favorite riff (and there are a ton of great ones) is a fast, stuttering part on "The Big Nothing" that reminds me of slipping engine gears. You'll probably have to hear it to make sense of that last sentence, but trust me, you'll be glad you did. He's also a fantastic soloist, with "Agnostic Minds" standing out on that front. And he proves he's no one-trick pony with the beautiful, clean instrumental "Jacqueline."

Drummer Joe Tobin puts in a great showing as well, particularly on tracks like "Greed Empire," with time changes that he handles expertly. Unfortunately, the other half of the band's rhythm section, bassist Chad Murphy, is barely audible through most of the album.

Singer Joshua Hoover's lyrics are topical, smart stuff, particularly on "Greed Empire," in which he hammers our materialistic society, pointing out that rich, or poor, we all die "empty handed." His vocals aren't as impressive. The screaming and growling start to grow old, particularly when the music becomes more melodic, like on "Thinker."

Then again, that's not likely to be a concern next time we hear from The Venting Machine, because Hoover's been replaced by Ben Peña, who previously sang in a band called Fire Through Shadows.

Instrumentally, The Venting Machine's "A Death To Your Scene" is a fine slab of metal that will keep your head banging for the better part of an hour. Given that, I'll let the repetitive growling and screaming vocals slide.