Passenger - Passenger

*=Staff's pick	In Reverse* In My Head For You Just The Same* Carnival Diaries* Circus Rain Circles I Die Slowly Used Eyes Of My Mind

Genre	Metal	Anders Fridén	Vocals
Tracks	11	Niclas Engelin	Guitar
Runningtime	42 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Håkan Skoger	Bass
Release	28 April 2003	Patrik J Sten	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	In Flames, Paradise Lost

If you take members from bands such as In Flames, Gardenian, HeadPlate and a former member of Transport League you would probably get a pretty nice mix of metal, and you do. However, not in the way expected since they take the chance to play something much softer than what they usually do.

The easiest way to describe the music is that it is like In Flames without almost any growling vocals, with a slower softer approach and catchy melodic refrains that sometimes is close to popmusic.
This might sound a little funny but it actually works quite well since the music is grounded on heavy guitar riffs and strong melodies, musically it also reminds me of the later works from the band Paradise Lost and with a touch of Sister Of Mercy.

First track In Reverse, driven by a heavy guitar riff so excellent you starts to headbang without even noticing, and it also has the most aggressive vocals on the album and a catchy refrain that immediately clings to your mind. Unfortunately this is the highpoint of Passengers selftitled debut, even if the rest isn't bad they've used most of their gunpowder at once already in the first song and that makes the rest of the album not as interesting.
Besides In Reverse I find the tracks Just The Same and Carnival Diaries to be the better ones on the album, mostly since they are the most aggressive with the heaviest riffing and they are also the ones that has the most in common with In Flames, the band where Anders Fridén usually growls and sings.

Two tracks that are not as good but worthy to be mentioned are the tracks I Die Slowly and Used, two of the softer tracks that sticks in my mind with catchy melodies, good songs even if they are somewhat more of a radiofriendly character rather than metal.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	8	6

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Thomas