(flexible) Bullit

On club calendars, (flexible) Bullit's parenthetically interrupted and spelling-impaired name indicts the Kansas City band as a rap-metal relic, like (hed) P.E. or Limp Bizkit. That's unfortunate, because the group is uniquely removed from that scene. With its steady, midpaced grooves, (f)B, more than even Audioslave, sounds like a rap-retardant version of Rage Against the Machine. On its debut disc, the band nails its old-school approach, with rock riffs that bear no traces of blues or thrash. It struggles when it ventures out of its comfort zone, with softer bits that sound too thin and heavy outbursts that seem cut-and-pasted from an unrelated temper tantrum. Similarly, singer Jeff Buck's standard hearty snarl works well, but when he reaches, he overemotes like a hammy actor, giving anger the hard sell on "Float" and whimpering as if wounded on "Bleed." Sometimes, it's best to be a straight shooter.