Album Review: Trapt – Live!

Most of the time when a band decides to release a live album, the band has had substantial success. Bands and artists such as Peter Frampton, Linkin Park, Kiss, and AC/DC have had major success with numerous studio albums, thus prompting a successful live album.

With this said, Trapt has done something odd for their third album. They have released Live!, an 11 song record with 9 live tracks and 2 studio tracks. The two opening tracks, those of the studio-recorded variety are the only true standout performances on Live! Chris Brown is not a great singer by any means, and this becomes even more evident on the live recordings. Brown?s vocals tend to be weak and are almost completely drowned by the rest of the band at times. At soft points, he also tends to sound like a famous green character from Sesame Street.

Even when Trapt was a new band, they were a mediocre band in a mediocre genre that featured the likes of Creed, Nickelback and hundreds of unknowns (Submersed, Closure, Echo 7 and so on). However, Live! could actually help Trapt?s career, as doubtful as it may seem. The performances are very raw with great instrumentation and big crowd involvement? on the songs they know. But the between song banter will throw a lot of potential or semi-fans off. The overuse of profanity, most notably after ?Hollowman?, is not only unnecessary, but sounds forced as if to try to be cool.

There are several strong songs in the set however. Their song ?Waiting?, which is fairly new, eclipses their jock-rock hit ?Headstrong? in not only quality, but in presentation. The strength of the entire band seems to have disappeared; when everything should?ve been it?s biggest.

Needless to say, if you are not a die-hard Trapt fan, it?s ok to steer clear of this one and wait for their next studio album.

{Review by: Matthew Chesley}