Madside hail from Redding, CA. All the members look appropriately modern rock star, with short hair, black t-shirts and morose expressions. They site the correct influences (i.e. funk, R&B, “hard rock”) for a rock band wanting to seem diverse in a sterile rock environment. They play their instruments well enough. The singer sings well and screams at the correct time. All in all, Madside’s self titled debut fits in well with other discs from the hard rock/nu metal genre.
The problem with the disc is the same as its strength. It fits in all to well. There is nothing on it that grabs the attention. I found myself tapping my foot at times. I have also found myself tapping my foot to elevator muzak, which doesn’t make me want to buy the album (Great Elevator Classics Vol. 3?). What does make me want to buy an album is great songwriting or something unique and convention pushing. Madside’s disc lacks these qualities. There is nothing groundbreaking here. Nothing that pushes the envelope. Nothing that sets them apart from anyone else in the main rock category. They all seem to play well. “Deny” is a decent rock ballad even if it does sound like they sat down and said, “Let’s write a rock ballad.” Mike Mathis sings the song well but doesn’t give the impression that he actually cares one whit about the subject matter. “Enemy” is more of a rocker but the basic hard rock song structure has been done to the nth degree by many before them. Nothing new is added here.
In their bio Madside say that they had a large collection of songs ranging from fairly heavy to mainstream. They choose the mainstream direction, saying it was the most natural direction for the band. This could be true. It could also land them the most popular acceptance and some broadcast radio play. Hopefully they will experience at least moderate success. Then, when that has faded away, hopefully they will allow themselves to evolve musically and approach music as the art that it should be rather than as a product to generate sales.
