People once thought that American techno bands couldn’t stand up to the bands of Britain with the likes of the Chemical Brothers, and Fluke as well as the all American Gearwhore. The Crystal Method emerged four years ago to prove that American’s could come out and deliver to the genre. While their first album showed amazing promise (and was very good, still in my CD player) critics and techno fans could tell of the Chemical Brother influence.

The techno duo, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland, returned to their aptly named studio, The Bomb Shelter, to produce their second major-label record. With collaborations from the likes of Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave) and Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), the Method reemerged this year with one of the most hardcore albums I have ever heard.

The discs first single “Name of the Game” is a hard bass pumping, guitar ripping tune that reintroduces the world to a band they have missed for the past four years. The song sounds tremendous playing on even a not-so-decent sound system with heavy bass and guitars provided by Morello.

The second single, and new video, is for the Weiland collaborated “Murder” which features a return to the rock influenced sound that was featured on Vegas.

While the album isn’t the most revolutionary, or as stunning as the duo’s first label CD, it does feature plenty of the standard Crystal Method flair that will keep fans of the first CD happy, while attracting a new audience with the new sounds pumping out of your stereo. The Crystal Method has broken the staple of just being another Chemical Brother’s rip off, they have found their own sound, and I like it.