Posted on: January 9, 2009 Posted by: Jay NeuFutur Comments: 0

Altered State comes up with an interesting style of music during their “Get Real”. During the disc’s first track (the title track), there is a blend of ZZ Top like rock with a set of vocals that will remind listeners of a Heart or a Lita Ford. There is definitely a vintage sound to Altered State that will go over large with those individuals that live, breathe, and die the past. “Consuming Me” is a track that gets Altered State further diversified in their sound. While there is not a gigantic move by the band during these two tracks, it shows that each subsequent track on “Get Real” could hold something substantively different from the others. That happens during “I Need A Vacation”, a trackt hat drastically transforms the vocals into something that is at times spoken, at times sung. The instrumentation does not change too terribly much from “Consuming Me” to “I Need A Vacation”, but Altered State has a number of things that they can change during any track on “Get Real”.

The tracks all have some sort of pop influence that means that they could conceivably be heard on different radio stations, but there are few tracks specifically on “Get Real” that could be heard screeching up the charts anytime soon. This is not due to any lack of ability on Altered State’s part, but rather that it would be hard to include such a diverse-sounding band alongside all of the rest of the more-monotone acts on the market. The music is a harder version of a jam band, albeit much more focused in structure than anything than jam bands could string together. However, there is the same sense that an individual could go and grab a bean bag chair and just zone out for a few hours to Altered State as they could to acts like the Grateful Dead and Phish. The band members all have a high level of skill, something that is shown the most clearly with the soloistic guitars that take the fore a number of times during the disc.

The only thing that could conceivably be changed with Altered State is that the band might look into providing one or two tracks that would reach a larger audience. That in turn would increase album sales and allow the band to reach more individuals with their specific style than would normally be possible otherwise.

Top Tracks: Something About You, War

Rating: 5.8/10

[JMcQ]

Altered State – Get Real / 2007 Self / 11 Tracks / http://www.alteredstate.org / [email protected] /

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