Swiss metal band Mingmen do not have a unique sound. There are literally hundreds of metal bands across the globe that can match their level of play. Chances are one of them is playing tonight near where you live and maybe a dozen people will show up.

Most of these other bands can scarcely scrape enough money together to send out for pizza let alone record. But Mingmen got their recording sessions and secured pretty sophisticated production value in their 2009 album 'Back To The Ground'. What Mingmen actually did with their time in studio is what frustrates me given the fact that there are so many other acts who could have done so much more with it in recording more interesting material.

It is as though the main approach was similar to one taken in factory production of cuckoo clocks - you know the product you are churning out isn't particularly tasteful or interesting and will be forgotten shortly after the buyer brings it home. But if you stick to assembling the basic prototype enough people somewhere will buy one to make the undertaking worth the investment.

If you like whiny vocals with your metal and a consistency in choice of chords that makes most of the album sound pretty much the same droning on and on with a depressing vibe or contrived sinister tone this might be your bag. For me this was a colossal, monotonous downer to sit through.

Vocalist Sway, a singer with seemingly a pretty limited range, sounds like she is on NyQuil for most of the tracks but then so does the rest of the band. The effect on the listener is similar.

Mingmen has without question found their true sound with this recording. Now they need to lose it a little bit so they don't touch the exact same bases every time with every single thing they record. They might just as well have released one of the cuts as a single since so much of the rest of what they have given us sounds like the same song over and over with minor variations.

Simply writing in tempo changes isn't good enough. You have to know when they are working and when they aren't and to have them rolling on top of each other is overdoing it, countering their effect. I also think that ending a song with amp crackle or some other sound which suggests a technical glitch as if to betray an unpolished touch which isn't there has been done so often that it just comes off as what it is - stale Swiss cheese.

The production is itself sounds pretty solid and technical sophistication is ever-present. They can play a little. With that said, I didn't detect the slightest touch of spontaneity or originality in any of the performances on the album. It could be they were over-rehearsed (if you think there is such a thing which I don't) but my sense is that the material was just flat.

It isn't until the 11th and final track of the album - 'Contre Les Murs' - that one starts to hear something with even a remote level of sincerity and passion. If you haven't given up on the album by then you might find it. My sense is audiences won't want to wait that long but for me that track made the rest of it worth getting through if only because I found that one solid musical statement worth making.

If you want good Swiss metal I assure there is such a thing. They were called Krokus and their legacy as Switzerland's best metal band is pretty safe if you go by what is on this particular CD.

Mingmen are set to tour Brazil in March, 2011.

www.myspace.com/mingmen