Silent Drive is a real lesson in diversity. The band is made up of members of bands like Bane, Dasai, and Drowning Man for kind of a Northeast Supergroup of sorts. At first glance their album, "Love is Worth It," might seem unfocused. It has beat-driven punk, arena rock, pop-metal, straight metal and hardcore influences throughout. Ultimately, the binding force for this album is its sense of melody. They love to rock out and scream, but they seem to keep coming back to the melodies and those seem to drive the album.

For example, "American Classic," sounds like something that you would hear on the radio, because it is just that type of song, but then in the band's next breath they blast you with double picked guitar riffs in "Banana Rejection," like a hardcore punk band that would just as soon kick you in the face than sing love songs. Then on a track like "Rooftops," they sound like what Incubus would sound like if they had better writing skills.

"Davey Crockett" is one of the better songs on the album. It builds effectively and the band really seems to peak emotionally on that track. It also will remind the listener that there is something to be said for conventional song construction. It starts soft. It builds, peaks and then exits as softly as it came.

"The Punch" is probably the best track on the album. It sees the band at its most vulnerable starting almost acoustically. It doesn't last that long as the band goes into a very punk verse and then when they break it down over the chorus they explode into a wall of guitar noise before reorganizing for the chorus again. I can only imagine how tight these guys need to be to pull these things off onstage.

The rest of the album is more of the same. I think fans of Refused, At the Drive-in and even more radio-friendly bands like Incubus will enjoy this band. Oh, and despite the punk influences and the fact that the album is called "Love is Worth It," I think it is safe to say that there are no prom songs anywhere on this album.

This article first appeared on RockDummy.com