This Las Vegas band has been kicking around for a while now and are sure to be the favorite of chin-bearded tough guys with tattoos on their necks everywhere. It's easy to tell these guys have still got a lot of nu-metal in them, but like many such bands, they've toughened up with a lot of Pantera/Lamb of God/Hatebreed style action. There are parts where "Bleed the Dream" is tedious, but actually, it flows pretty well and the songs don't melt together into a faceless mass like many such in this genre do.

Opening blast "My Eyes Itch" shows they mean business...blazing, brutish stuff, with vocalist Chad Smith sound a lot like Pro-Pain's Gary Meskil as he snarls his angry anthems. "Weakman Suicide" eases up but is still quite intense. I liked the thrashy, to the point "Pipe Bomb" and the catchy bounce of "Nobody Knows", but "Jacob's Ladder" and most of the "To the Nines/Platinum Lie" combo is just plain generic nu-metal (though the "bwah-ha-ha-ha" chant on "Platinum Lie" is kind of cool). "Becoming" brings clean vocals into the picture, but since they are so melodic and fit the melancholy feeling of the song so well, they don't annoy.

"Pure" death metallers and underground types will sneer at Hemlock and not entirely without reason, but "Bleed the Dream" is a pretty credible chunk of angry metal that doesn't cross into either pop or death territory. I'll bet these dudes can whip up one hell of a pit live.