Should ever the former members of bands like One Direction and 5 Seconds Of Summer mature and regroup, should ever, higher powers forbid, they decide they wanted to try their hand at rock ‘n’ roll, they’d likely sound like Trapt in their latest offering DNA. The American rock group lacks in everything that would require any positive commentary; dull, whiny, dull some more, and more suited to the discographies of pop star rock star wannabes – not to mention it’s very lyrically poor.
‘Human’, ‘It’s Over’, ‘Tangled Up In You’, the majority of the too-long eighteen track album, all rely heavily on a monotonous selection of riffs, forced aggression and repetition of words to create bland choruses, often over melodies so cyclic and mundane this album runs as one long, long drone of wasted studio time.
Trapt tries to sound edgy and aggressive failing with comical results. Frontman Chris Taylor Brown mutters his unoriginal lyrics through gritted teeth, failing to rile up the sentiments of edginess and coolness he thinks he has and may hope to generate in fans. Likewise, lead guitarist David Sudock lacks imagination entirely, using the same small range of notes in short and seemingly thoughtless solos. Trapt’s only achievement with DNA is that they’ve brought forth a resurgence of the early-noughties rock ballads era, though were this release inserted into that period it would be considered one of the worst offerings.
Teeny boppers moving away from Top 40s pop and toward an edgy “rebellious” phase will rejoice in this release and feel like they’re the pinnacle of edgy and mysterious, especially if they’ve heard Trapt’s 2002 hit single ‘Headstrong’ and thought they were cool for knowing it – this is not that song and Trapt are unlikely to ever recreate that success. As for the rest of us, try this album and you’ll find yourself saying, ‘what in the hell did I just listen to?’
