Ok, this is normally not my cup of tea in a band (I feel like I say that a lot), but Lethargy is.....damnit.....a pretty good rock band. There is no metal here to be found, no brutality, no rage, no insanely complex polyrythms overlapping guitars so technical that Eddie Van Halen and Steve Vai and Yngwie all put together couldn't figure them out. No vocals made to rip your face off, shred paint off the walls, shatter eardrums, or wake the dead. Neverthless: "Purification" is a rock record that will catch even my ear after a few listens. I'm actually surprised that this album hasn't made more of an impression on mainstream rock radio - or at least none that I know of, given my somewhat limited intake of all things mainstream - and the band isn't more well known. I suppose if this were 1996 or so, they probably WOULD be more well known, as their sound is truly a throw back to that era. If I had to describe them via comparison, this band is a weird mix of Mother Love Bone, Candlebox, and maybe a little bit of early Stone Temple Pilots.

The production on this album is downright beautiful, everything delivered with clarity and evenness. The vocal delivery is a bit sing-songish for me, mixing somewhat of that corporate-80's style with the corporate 90's style of rock radio vocals: clean vox that spread plenty of emotion and feel with just enough roughness added to not be considered totally wimped out. But fear not, fans of the softer style: this band can write a freakin' ballad. Two of them, in fact, on this particular disc: one entitled "I See Man's End In His Construction" and the other "Fragile Crystal Dream." Both of these songs, I have to admit, are really cool, and the latter is actually a pretty stunning way to end the album. Other tracks on the album, with titles like "Stealth", "Innocence Serene", Bleachin' Bones", and "Inertia" all range from bluesy rockers to at-the-doorstep of metal tracks. It seems like the band almost wants to step over the threshold into metal on a lot of these songs, but just stops short of it. If you're in the mood for a decent rock record that - to it's credit - sounds far removed from the current sound of what's popular today: Lethargy's "Purification" is for you.

6.5 Rock Monkeys out of 10