Red Line Chemistry

“Chemical High & a Hand Grenade” by Red Line Chemistry from Chemical High & a Hand Grenade :

After spending a few years treading water in the local scene under the name Penumbra, the members of Red Line Chemistry knew exactly what they wanted to accomplish with their debut album: “To write and record an album that could stand up to anything out there on the professional level,” proclaims the group’s Web site. The result, Chemical High & a Hand Grenade, does exactly that, for better or worse. With help from KC recording mainstay Wes West of Studio West Productions, Chemical High is chock-full of tight-as-a-drum modern rock that would hold its own against radio-friendly megagroups such as Staind or Nickelback. The listener’s proclivity toward faultless production will determine whether Grenade’s almost-sterile sound is the record’s downfall. Still, with tracks that reproduce the best elements of Maynard James Keenan (“Heavy”) and step out of the taco wrapper with the occasional guitar freakout (“Dead in Santa Carla”), RLC is A-OK, especially for fans of well-crafted, guitar-heavy radio rock.