The Driven - Official Website


Gravity Clock

United States Country of Origin: United States

Gravity Clock
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Type:
Release Date: 2002
Label: Self Released
Genre:
1. Instant Resolution
2. Driver
3. Do You Feel It's Fine?
4. Look Down
5. Who's Screaming (Live Your Lies)
6. It's No Good
7. For The Quiet People
8. Strong
9. In My Head
10. Lying In The Wind
11. Time Is Blind
12. Giving In
13. Myself
14. Neverville
15. All Over You
16. Two Hands On The Wheel
17. Weight Of The World
18. …For Tomorrow

Review by Krys on April 17, 2002.

This power/progressive rock band was formed in late 2000 after two members of Inner Strength, Joe Marselle (guitar) and Scott Oliva (vocals) decided to unleash their musical vision under a new name, The Driven. Their vision is self-described as “raw, simple, straight and to the point”... I can agree with first 3 but to this day I’m not sure what point are they talking about because to tell you the truth, I don’t even see a point in releasing “Gravity Clock”.

So, let’s get their vision under a microscope. Raw - recorded with a low budget at mostly home studios, “Gravity Clock” sounds very raw but that’s not the problem here. The vocals are way up front, the guitars have too much distortion for a power/progressive style, dynamics don’t even exist and the stupid cover looks like someone did it 1 minute before it went to print.

Simple and straight - Oh in this department they achieved the ultimate highs... it so simple and straight that if you put me against a wall and stuck a gun to my head, I wouldn’t be able to recognize a single track by its title. The musicianship is actually quite promising and leaves some hope for the future, but if it doesn’t go together with a feel and touch for some good melodies The Driven faces a long road to the top.

To the point – I already said it; I have no clue what they’re talking about.

If this is “unrelenting power rock at it’s finest” as they claim, then power rock is dead for me because I don’t want to hear any mediocre bands after having had to endure the finest sons of the genre.

One thing I have to give to them is that for only $8 they delivered 18 tracks (68 min. of music). But on the other hand, I had to take a break after the first 9 just to make sure I could make it to the end. If they put all those ideas into 9-10 songs, gave them better arrangements and production maybe I’d appreciate this album a little more, but 18 tracks that basically sound the same without any atmosphere resulted in 3 finished cups of coffee and half pack of smoked cigarettes, just to get through.

Bottom Line: Boring. If a rock band can’t make their songs stand from one another then there must be something terribly wrong in The Driven camp.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 5
Atmosphere: 3
Originality: 5
Production: 4
Overall: 4

Rating: 4.2 out of 10

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