Vertigo Demonstrates Significant Growth on New Album

The progged-out space rock on Vertigo’s second album finds its match in the booming, emotional vocals of singer Lindsey Stamey. The band freshens its modern rock sound with Tool-like digressions and steely grooves, but Stamey stars—a dominant presence as she slips from ingenue crooning to a powerhouse bellow that owes something to both Amy Lee of Evanescence and PJ Harvey. The Coming and the Going shines in its individual parts but suffers from its monochromatic tone and pace; even the slow songs build up to a bruising mid-tempo peak, and the emotional darkness of the songs feels overwrought at over an hour. But the disc clearly demonstrates significant growth since the band’s debut, And Miles to Go Before We Sleep, from 2006.

© 2009 MetroPulse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.