Alien Ant Farm

Michael Jackson has been defiled. The self-proclaimed King of Pop has apparently fallen into such disrepute that he's licensing his songs to second-rate rock bands. "Smooth Criminal" was never, is not and never will be a quality rock song, but that's not going to stop newcomers Alien Ant Farm from trying.\nLimp Bizkit did it with "Faith." Orgy did it with "Blue Monday." It's a fairly simple formula that has become the trend for new modern rock bands. Take a song that is good, play it with hard, grinding guitars and suddenly the band is flying high on the modern rock charts. \nIf Alien Ant Farm's spot on Papa Roach's label, New Noize, is any indication of its musical style, try Alien Ant Farm's just-finished tour with Linkin Park and just-started tour with Orgy.\nAlien Ant Farm comes across as just another flash-in-the-pan rock group. While its music walks a fine line between modern rock and the new neo-metal wave, in either case there is nothing original about Alien Ant Farm's music. \nIts current single, "Movies," imitates Incubus to the extreme (minus the DJ), right down to lead singer Dryden Mitchell's voice, which could fill in for Incubus' Brandon Boyd any day. On "Flesh and Bone," the band slips into a rhythmic beat with its guitars before going back to pounding on its guitars. Variety is good, but when the variation contrasts so heavily to everything else on the album, the band loses the one thing it had going for it: consistency.\nIt could be worse. Alien Ant Farm could have chosen to imitate worse bands than Incubus: 3 Doors Down, Oleander or a host of others who are all actually just imitations themselves. Alien Ant Farm has aligned itself with Papa Roach, and right there is asking for trouble. Images of Mitchell trying to rap over this album's music are disturbing.\nTo give credit where credit's due, "Smooth Criminal" seemed to fit in with this album. But that's not saying much, only that this album is so spread out and unimaginative that putting a cover of an '80s pop masterpiece probably seemed logical to producer Jay Baumgardner. Until the modern rock world starts moving on and experimenting, bands like Alien Ant Farm will continue popping up everywhere.