oh heavens!

Heavens
"Patent Pending"
(Epitaph)

It's interesting that Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba would name his new band Heavens as he is a self-proclaimed atheist, as well as a member of the Church of Satan. Being a little too ironical, aren't we?

Still, one can't be too mad at Skiba; after all, he did write some of the best pop-punk songs in the last ten years and he may be personally responsible for all the mallgoth teens that are currently taking up all the good user names on MySpace.

Heavens is a stark departure from the three-chord glory that the Trio usually offer and is a little more bleak. Actually, it's more along the Joy Division/Bauhaus side of things. It certainly isn't a bad album. There are clear winners with songs like "Heather," "True Hate," and "Dead End Girl." But they are also very subdued songs and I don't think your run-of-the-mill Alkaline Trio fan will dig this stuff too much.

However, if you're one of the many people who are still trying to ride out this '80s revival until your legwarmers aren't cool anymore (again), then by all means check out Heavens. They're worthy of a spin or two, but that's it.