Dark New Day’s newest addition to its five-man lineup, former Sevendust axe man Clint Lowery, should never have left his old bandmates behind.

Dark New Day sounds like a complete rip-off of today’s top mainstream hard rock acts in every way possible. The overly distorted guitar riffs are there, along with the melancholy lyrics and dark, sinister sounding lead vocals. And, like Sevendust, a few songs feature a band member yelling vocals matching those being sung.

The thing that kills the band the most is having Lowery as one of the main song writers. This wouldn’t be bad, except for the fact that his songs give off an obvious Sevendust vibe, only a tad mellowed out.

The only solid part of this band is the rhythm section, particularly Will Hunt’s drumming. He precisely times cymbal and bass drum hits so they line up perfectly with accents in the vocal and guitar parts.

Hunt seems to be the only band member who doesn’t sound like he is trying to steal vibes from the member of Sevendust who plays the same instrument. Hunt’s drumming is uniquely his own.

One would think that musicians from great bands like Stereomud and Doubledrive would be able to come up with better stuff than a contrived-sounding radio hard rock disc, but maybe there’s something missing.

People who loved Sevendust for the pounding guitar riffs, Lajon Witherspoon’s scratchy vocals and Morgan Rose’s blazing drum beats may be turned off by this one.

The only thing saving the band’s first album from total disaster are two solid tracks in “Brother,” that has some amazing guitar soloing, and “Fill Me Again,” that sounds like the band just rocked as hard as possible and didn’t try to sound a certain way.

– Dan Hopper

With the expansion of the Internet, sites like Myspace and Purevolume have opened up a plethora of opportunities for musicians who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford distribution for their music. Provided the bands are good enough, these sites allow them to completely bypass signing with a label and conforming to the whiles of the music industry.

Daphne Loves Derby is the first big success story to spawn from these new Internet-based tools. The band members met each other on the Internet, and the aforementioned Web sites spread their music like wildfire. The garage-emo trio racked up more than 2 million plays online before even getting signed.

After getting picked up by Outlook Music, the group recorded its first record, “On The Strength of All Convinced” (out in stores next Tuesday).

For the cult following of Daphne fans, this album is exactly is expected

Songs spanning from melodic piano-driven ballads to harder, edgier rock tunes complement each other very nicely to make this a CD that is pleasant to listen to in its entirety. There isn’t a song worth skipping.

For some inexplicable reason, the universally-relatable songs seem to strike a chord on an intimate level. Between his sincerity and raw talent, singer Kenny Choi seems to have a way of drawing in listeners whether they want to be or not.

There is something to be said about a band that can captivate, inspire and touch, let alone a band that can do it on its first attempt.

For emo kids and lovelorn music fans, this album may just be the fresh sound you’ve been waiting for.

– Dan McClanahan