Away From The Sun

11/06/2002 10:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor

They've toured with Creed and Sevendust and had their second major label album produced by Rick Parashar who's worked with Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, and, most importantly, Nickelback. See, to paraphrase Zager and Evans (don't ask), if rock is to survive it must adhere to certain rules. It must educate itself from within and learn and study and anticipate every potential move being made by contemporaries and adversaries. In other words, it must all sound the same. What would human beings do if they turned on the radio and every "hard rock" band didn't sound like an offspring of Creed? They might not know they were listening to a hard rock station. And not knowing is not acceptable.

So, Escatapwa, Mississippi's most successful hard rock act has come out firing with tons of riffage designed to ignite the hearts of potential guitarists everywhere. Singer Brad Arnold still sounds like he's got a piano strapped to his back while he's walking uphill, but "When I'm Gone" explodes like you've come to expect from your premier hard rock entertainment. Bravo, boys. Job done.