s/t
Artist: Spoken 
Label: Tooth & Nail
Length: 11 songs / 38:10

First of all, I'm sick and tired of Travis Wyrick.  Pillar.  Disciple.  Gretchen.  Even POD.  The man seemingly knows two settings  on the amplifier (generic and nu-generic) and has zero sense of  dynamics.  I dream at night about how good Disciple could be if they  would just ditch the hack already.

On Spoken's self-titled third album, Wyrick applies the same generic  guitar tones and the same clean but gutless production style he uses  on every cd he's done.  Big problem though:  Spoken doesn't have the  
songs or uniqueness of a POD or Pillar to break through the sonic blandess.  Of Spoken, I can say... "they play their instruments  alright." Let's see.  Hardcore alternating screaming vocals riffing  blah blah blah.  You've heard these riffs, changes and breakdowns on forty better albums.

You know what it is? Spoken should stop trying to be a hard band.  Their alternative rock stuff works betters.  It's not great by any  stretch of the imagination, but it's at least tolerable.   Of course,  what generic hard band would be complete without a wimpy, wispy  "piano-driven ballad" in the middle of the record. Finger Eleven  much?  No doubt, Spoken fans (do they exist?) will say it's "SO  EMOTIONAL OMG."  Spoken is yet another unnecessary addition to the  Tooth & Nail catalogue, a faceless band in a sea of faceless bands, a  clone of a clone of a clone.  Pass on this one.

Ryan Ro  11/11/2007