Nural come out immediately from the gates with a brutal, driving brand of rock that cannot be classified as emo or punk, but rather in the vein of other genre-straddling bands like the All-American Rejects and Local H. And hell, with all this great instrumentation, the band has placed a tremendous weight on the vocals, making them the key purveyors of “The Weight of the World’s” infectious, Nickelback-like harmonies. The fact that tracks like “The Curse” draws in an instrumental way from the hair metal of the eighties but from the post-grunge pop of the mid-nineties (New Radicals) for the vocals shows that the band is not afraid to experiment to ensure the strongest success.
Moving onto a track like “Not Guilty”, Nural comes to more of a new-rock style for their music, looking more towards Papa Roach and Disturbed than to either SR-71 or Poison, as the earlier tracks of “The Weight of the World” held. Moving through landmarks (genres) with each track, Nural will ensure the largest segment of society will be locked onto their music. A number of these tracks are more than fitting fodder to be played on Clearchannel radio, but the rub with Nural’s music is that everything is arranged with a patience that is simply unheard of with a band’s debut; this feels more as if seasoned, tour-weary veterans were given ample time to come up with the best of the best.
Tracks like “I Told You So” may not have the experimental content that some listeners need to experience on their albums, but any lack in terms of experimentation is more than made up for with the euphonic sounds that emanate from “The Weight of the World”. When a band starts off their career with something so polished and yet not bordering on the fringe of cliché-ness or bland, mall-oriented rock, one should only expect a long and successful career for the band. Even the Evanescence-like track “Forgive Me” re-tools the original band’s over-done and cheesy sound; by simply having the vocals play against the piano present on the track Nural comes out with a sound that is sincere through and through. The disc clocks in at forty-five minutes, which seems to be slightly on the long side for current albums but will surely not scare off listeners. “The Weight of the World” will be what Nural feels on their shoulders as soon as mTV or Clearchannel blasts their popularity into the stratosphere.
Top Tracks: Enlighten Me, The Curse
Rating: 6.8/10
Nural – The Weight of the World / 2005 Hopeless / 12 Tracks / http://www.nuralmusic.com / http://www.hopelessrecords.com / Reviewed 28 July 2005