INVITRO

The sounds of INVITRO's "When I was a Planet" are not typically heard in the musical neighborhoods through which I cruise. Still, I must tip my hat to the relatively creative, raucous, and punk-fueled racket going on here. In the way of background information, INVITRO involves ex-SNOT/SOULFLY guitarist Mikey Doling, along with vocalist Jeff Weber, bassist Brad Dujmovic, guitarist Mike Pygmie, and drummer Benny Cancino. "When I was a Planet" is the debut album for the band on a new label called Gridiron Records, which was co-founded by Doling, Kansas City Chiefs offensive tackle Kyle Turley, Max Harris, and Nic Adler (former manager of SNOT).

As for the album, "When I was a Planet" is a milkshake of musical influences, but the primary ingredient is frantic punk rock. Take that nutty punk foundation and add to it a decidedly heavy edge (even metal-heavy) with down-tuned guitars, fast tempos, a good deal of the kind of scattershot musicality of a DOG FASHION DISCO, and a pinch of Mike Patton, particularly in Weber's vocal delivery. The band tosses in some impacting, though hardly non-traditional, guitar solos in the mix as well.

While speed and recklessness are mainstays throughout the bulk of the album, there is a fair amount of variety in the songwriting too. Opener "New Disease" is, hands down, the album highlight, blending that fast and stuttering approach with a chorus that is pretty damn catchy. A bit of ska-laced punk is involved on "Lucid May", while "Shark Attack" has what is one of the album's most conventional melodies, relatively speaking, and an effective one at that. Take the DEAD KENNEDYS and run them through the INVITRO blender and you might end up with a song like the dorky cool "Comb Over Party". The aforementioned mania of DOG FASHION DISCO rears up a time or two as well, the manic "Hollyvision" a case in point. You get the idea.

The soundtrack to a carnival run by amphetamine-fueled "carnies" might be an apt way to describe "When I was a Planet". One thing "When I was a Planet" is not is the flavor of the month. Coupled with a lot of nonstop action and some cool, if at time agitating, song structures make "When I was a Planet" worth checking out if it is variety in your life that you so desperately seek.