Trapt

'Trapt'



Warner Brother Records



Grade: B-



New metal outlet Trapt's self-titled debut is a perplexing journey through the heart and soul of frontman Chris Brown. While Brown sojourns through life and love, the band itself oscillates between contradictory identities. Sometimes modeling itself after Incubus and other times striving to emulate Linkin Park, Trapt loses a necessary amount of consistency by frequently jumping the fence between alt-rock and heavy metal. Trapt's catchy verses are made possible by cool but energetic vocals and simple guitar rhythms, but the their hooks usually become chaotic screaming matches overpowered by purposefully untuned guitars.

This phenomenon is epitomized on the album's first track, "Headstrong," where an inventively delivered rock song suddenly turns into a disastrous Linkin Park imitation. Brown creatively intonates the first verse, but oversteps his bounds by shrieking the chorus with feigned anger, "I know that you are wrong / You're headstrong / This is not where you belong." The irony is that Trapt itself is both headstrong and out of place. Although an incredible amount of potential is evident from Trapt's performances, the band's impulsiveness and inclination toward heavy metal is its undoing.

Trapt finds more of a niche on "Made of Glass," a less drastic but nonetheless powerful rock song. Here, Trapt's bipolar tendencies are still conspicuous but less grating. Like "Headstrong," it returns to the theme of losing one's identity, but on "Glass," Brown finds himself through the eyes of another. The track is effective because Trapt effectively swaps bogus anger for genuine wonderment. While the band seems to find a bit of identity on "Made of Glass," the following track, "Hollow Man," is simply too typical. It is completely clichd, but nonetheless fated for play on rock radio.

The album's standout track is the Matchbox Twenty-meets-Live hybrid, "These Walls." Trapt stays faithful to its amalgam formula on "Walls," but the unusual mix seems less jarring and eclectic. Trapt's full potential is made especially salient by this song. Here, Brown uses his unique voice to effectively empower both the mellow verses and the dynamic chorus with sincere emotion. Trapt's catchiest and most fluid attempt is destined for mainstream radio success.

Trapt's ability to craft catchy and powerful rock songs cannot be questioned; however, the band's inconsistency unravels most of their attempts. With their debut album, Trapt is trying to find their own identity by imitating the music of mainstream alt-rock and metal bands, and to some extent, this formula is starting to work.

Only when they learn to consistently blend their influences will Trapt achieve their full potential. "Headstrong," the song that they chose as their first single, is ironically also the only characteristic standing between them and mainstream success.