No hooks to be found here...

Review Score: (4/10)
Oh me, oh my: we can zap back in time and see the corporate suits salivating over this one. The lead singer from Stone Temple Pilots? The less talented bunch from Guns N' Roses?? Some other dude from L.A. who always wears a SKULLCAP!!!!! SIGN THIS BAND!!!!

Unfortunately, the hope doesn't meet the hype with Contraband. Where it should have been all sleaze rock riffs and huge catchy choruses, something Vr's member's former bands achieved effortlessly...the exercise seems a little forced here. The first single "Fall to Pieces" doesn't stick a hook in you like a heroin needle, and Weiland's singing sounds laboured; most of the other songs on the album take too long to start or, like the ole' Harley in Duff's garage, never got going at all. Slash, true to form, busts out of some decent riffs, but I still long for those three epic solos he ripped off in Sweet Child O' Mine. I guess there's no accounting for either the Deleo brothers or Izzy, both of whom wrote most of the music in STP and GNR respectively.

Despite this grumbling, the heavily Pro-tooled sound of the album is nothing short of immense, so there's one bright spot in all of this. Hard Rock Background music?

In the end, Contraband, like it's title should be shoved into the bottom of your suitcase so your friends don't see it.

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