Pure Inc. - A New Day's Dawn

*=Staff's pick	Saviour* Break Free* Blvd. Jam I'm A Rolling Stone Burst Skinflint I'll Let You Know The Thing You Left On Me Sick As I Am* Where's Your God Crawling* New Day Dawns

Genre	Hard Rock	Gianni Pontillo	Vocals
Tracks	12	Sandro Pellegrini	Guitar
Runningtime	45 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Andreas Gentner	Bass
Release	17 March 2006	Dave Preissel	Drums
Country	Switzerland	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Audioslave, Creeed, Nickelback

Swiss bands don't exactly overflow the market. Celtic Frost, Krokus and Gotthard are probably the most known and if the cards are dealt right there is a fair chance for Pure Inc. to break as well. Pure Inc. that was founded in 1994 now deliver their third album, and from the little I have heard of their second self-titled album they don't seem to have gone through any major changes.

Pure Inc. has groove and heaviness in the music but it is not those ingredients that are the most obvious when you listen. It is instead the American influences and the slick, almost mainstream, approach in their sound. There is a lot of bands like Audioslave and Creed in their sound and when Gianni Pontillo is heavy on the Chris Cornell vibes it is easy to refer to Pure Inc. as pale followers to Audioslave. But there is a groovy vibe present and many melodic hard rock songs that are captivating and it easy to take them in and I find them enjoyable to listen to. Nevertheless, commercial is a word that comes to mind and that is not necessary equal to bad but in this case it tears on the originality, a slick easy going sound spiced with the heavy, although powerful, riffs leaves more to wish for.

Pure Inc. is heavy on the guitars and the riffing and the forceful voice is what drives it all forward, and the opening song Saviour is a real powder keg that nails you to the wall. Sick As I Am and Crawling bring out a little rougher side of Pure Inc. and you can draw similarities with Disturbed and for me this side of the band is what I like best. But mostly it is slower and heavy driving song but perhaps it is a bit too obvious which band that has served as role model. Even the guitars, albeit good, are too similar to Tom Morello of Audioslave and his significant stylish playing.

With the power ballad I'll Let You Know they might as well have a real monster hit if it only is treated the right promotional way. Not my kind of song though but definitely one with a massive hit potential. I can easily see that song being played at commercial radio stations and being taken in with open arms from the fans of ballads with bands like Nickelback and 3 Doors Down. In general the music is delivered with pressure and the voice from Gianni Pontillo is powerful and charismatic, but what puts a stick in his wheel is the fact that he sounds very similar to Chris Cornell. Add that to the sound of Pure Inc. that is close to Audioslave and you can see that Pure Inc. has dug a hole and happily thrown themselves in it.

A New Day's Dawn, when we draw the bottom line, is a good album. Not great but a most decent one, but if you look to those bands listed as familiar they have still some to live up to in order to be on the same level as those. What lacks the most with Pure Inc. is originality, otherwise all components are there.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	8	6

Summary
6,5 chalices of 10 - Thomas