If screwed up election results & alligators are all you think of when contemplating Florida, hopefully Crease changes all that. With the release of their second album, listeners get to witness an up and coming band's skillful lunge at a chunk of the alt metal pie. "Only Human" blends an impressive mix of songs featuring solid musicianship all around. The fairly broad vocals range from purring to growling in the time it takes you to read this. Intelligent, challenging lyrics take the audience into an intense world where revenge is meted out lyrically. The command in "Ordinary" to "Be yourself instead of being me," seems to be one they hold themselves to when they pay musical tribute to their influences. Such songs, like the Zombie-esque "Transparent", stop short of becoming an outright rip off, neatly taking off on its own tangent. Interesting guitar playing & effects on all of the songs add to the value & intrigue. The opening song, "Nothing is Real" showcases all of this nicely, making a very good introduction for the uninitiated. 
 
Rather than listing song after song that would qualify for heavy rotation, any of the songs on this album would sound perfect blasting from the radio. Fortunately, the edgy guitar undertow should keep Crease from being dismissed as yet another alternative band in the vast sea of similitude that presently chokes the airwaves. Can such a mature sounding second album have anything to do with their Grammy winning producer, Charles Dye? In spite of the weird, Top 40- friendly fare Dye has churned out previously, including Ricky Martin & Spam Jovi, this album stands alone. Rather than cramming Crease into the hit generating, 'sound like everyone else' mold, the end result bristles with imagination, promise and even originality.
 
This ear catching assortment of tunes will delight one and all, offering tunes that rock hard alongside anthematic ditties bound for radio glory and ballads that won't make you roll your eyes & skip to the next song. The Def Lep cover even accomplishes the impossible: transforming cheesy, radio- filler into something far more crunching & driving than anything Lep ever mass-produced, as implausible at that sounds. Run out & buy this album today for the future bragging rights of liking these guys way back when. If future albums continue to highlight such growth & evolution, Crease will be the next big thing & Roadrunner Records will look back with regret on the day they dropped Crease from their label.  
 
I give it 4 stars- This is an excellent album, but Crease are too young in their career to start resting on their laurels.  
 

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