The boys of Stereotactic cheerfully wear their love for eighties and classic rock on their collective sleeve. On first listen, The Dawning sounds exactly like Thursday or Thrice with more sensitive lyrics. Then things start popping out at you: certain "whoa whoa"s are sung instead of screamed, melodic guitar riffs ripped straight from Appetite For Destruction find their way into otherwise generic melodic hardcore songs -- seriously, check out "Selfishness" and "Envy Within" -- and the band members have no problem admitting to being influenced by decidedly uncool bands such as Rush, Styx and Mötley Crüe.

Much about The Dawning screams "debut". For starters, how about not sounding like every other melodic hardcore band out there? Granted, Stereotactic's pop-metal influences are slightly more obvious, and the band members don't deny them, but that doesn't justify their reliance on songwriting clichés or predictable structures and effects. Second, it would be nice to listen to a melodic hardcore record that wasn't painfully self-aware. How about a little lyrical refinement? Theres no shortage of cheese here, as "19yr / F"'s opening lines attest: "You wanted me to stay the night, but I told you, I said that I won't / I won't do that! Not again!" Similarly, "Pt.2 (His Perspective)" and "Fleetwood" are weepers in only the broadest writing-angry-poetry-in-a-notebook-with-a-big-fat-Sharpie sense. Finally, Stereotactic needs to let go of the image and posturing. They're from southern California, about two hours north of LA, and we get it, but please leave the depressing religious iconography, rock star inner-sleeve photo shoot and string-drenched acoustic ballad ("Lost And Found") to the big boys.

That said, The Dawning is pretty promising. If Stereotactic keep plugging away at those shredding fakebooks and abandon the generic qualities that plague every halfway-decent melodic hardcore group, they'll have a leg up on the Equal Vision bands. Until then, they're just another group in the crowd.