That’s not saying that the album is not any good. Some of the songs are as rocking as the Smashing Pumpkins and early Metallica, which would make sense because some of the songs sound exactly like the afore-mentioned bands.

If it were not for the Bad-Religionesque vocals of frontman Phil Allocco on the vibrant Anyone at All and the slower He Knows, the average listener would probably think the songs were the tracks from the Pumpkins’ debut album Gish that didn’t make the final cut.

The band is really good on the funky-guitar driven tunes like Held My Tongue (I took too many steps toward compromise/I’ve held my tongue and I swallowed my words for the last time).

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The opening cut Cancer shows that the band can write hard rock that sounds original. And that is not easy to do in a limited style of music. The echo-affected vocals lead up to a chorus worth singing and a guitar riff deserving of some serious air guitar.

The talk box on the melodically heavy Conversation is a definite plus. Not many bands seem interested in the sounds a talk box can create, and not since Guns n Roses and Cracker has it added so much to a band’s song.

Though Dogma doesn’t exactly take any steps toward the future of rock n’ roll, they occasionally show potential to be a band that you will be hearing more about in the years to come.