Recently Reviewed:

LOVE LUST FAITH DREAMS
30 Seconds To Mars

Iron Man 3: Heroes Fall
Various Artists

The Neighbourhood
I Love You.

Early Taproot music- the stuff that the band put out for Atlantic wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t anything amazing but it wasn’t terrible and that’s a trend that they continue on into their independent days with their first album off of Atlantic “Our Long Road Home.” Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t sound anything like the Taproot you used to listen to in 02, gone are the numetal elements and more prevalent is a type of straight across metal approach that’s on the mainstream rock side of music. But Taproot is still hampered by one thing- they’re a great band they’ve just never had that one amazing song. “Poem” is decent and “Calling” is actually the closest that the band has come to that achievement. Those songs are two great rock songs but they don’t really set Taproot aside from other bands. As for “Our Long Road Home”, the elite song eludes the band again. In fact, with “Our Long Road Home” Taproot has gotten away from their early sound which resembles Ra a little bit. Most of the new Taproot record sounds like a Filter album, maybe a little bit like a Nonpoint album. And so while they sound different they still aren’t doing something that’s entirely unique and different and until they do that they’ll never have that ‘elite’ song. Not a terrible record, but not the record of the year- Taproot’s “Our Long Road Home” will appease fans of the band and maybe gain a few more, but for this record to be successful they needed ‘the song’ and that didn’t happen. “You’re Not Home Tonight” and “Footprints” come close, but other than that nothing really pops out at the listener and those are towards the end of the album. If you like mainstream rock this is for you, if you only dive into that slightly this isn’t something you’re going to be crazy about.