Endo

After a slow track of random noise and static, Endo bursts into song as singer Gil Bitton lets loose a tremendous scream over a thunderous drum beat. Unfortunately, that's about all the spark the band manages on Evolve.\nEndo begins the album with "Leave us Alone," often sounding like a garage-band version of Rage Against the Machine, complete with a vocal tone similar to Zach de la Rocha. Rap-metal might base its music on rhythmic guitars, but Endo has forgotten that playing the same riff again and again only works for Wesley Willis.\nEndo does have a few bright moments lyrically, focusing on the consumerism of American society in "Listen," but often falls short on many other tracks. Lyrics such as I can't breathe cause I don't want to breathe no more from "Malice" sound like they were written by a junior high student rather than a band with a major label deal.\n"Suffer" provides an oasis in the middle of this dead affair and holds its own against any Linkin Park song on the radio. Beginning with Bitton's whisperings, the track sounds close to the Deftones in style and builds slowly over a trance-like bass line up to the chorus, during which Bitton's voice is beautifully layered. Sadly, one track just can't make up for an album that sounds as if it was recorded through a cardboard box.\nBitton does have an additional bright spot, unlike his band mates, as he relays some tight rapping over a mosh-pit inducing guitar line in "The Program." In a few years, this band might be able to develop into a high-quality unit. But by then, the rap-metal market might have evolved and vanished.\nWith the same management as Pantera and Ministry, I expected a little more from this act, but Endo ends up sounding like a cheap knock-off band most of the time, not even in the league of the likes of Slipknot or even Limp Bizkit.\nPerhaps the album should be titled Extinction because Endo is helping to dilute the already over-saturated market of rap-metal.