Artist: Pokerface  
   Title: Made In America
   Label: PHD Music

Hailing from Allentown Pennsylvania, Poker Face take their music very seriously and take their nationality even more seriously.  These guys are stars and stripes through and through and this patriotism is projected through the music of the band.  They don’t preach to the wise, their sole intent is to preach to the common man and bring their thoughts on the state of the US to the masses in a hope that they can make a difference.

This album may be some 3 yrs old but the message behind the album still has some reverence, if not more so today.

The album itself is as diverse as they come with the band taking influences from the all out metal and rock, with some jazz and funk infusions to unite as the Poker Face sound.

The album opens up with ‘Kontrol’ and from the off the band state their case with this all out rocker.  A hard hitting start to the album and a solid foundation for the rest of the album to built on and built it does.

The album continues with ‘Revolution’, another hard hitter both musically and politically.  But leaving the politics behind for a moment, this is real mixed bag of a track with its semi narrative moments mixed with its all out rock and just a touch of jazz guitar for good measure.

A couple of my favourite tracks off the album are next first the majestic dark tones of ‘Thief In The Night’ and secondly the power infused ‘I Wanna Know’, both very similar, both with powerful messages behind them.  As with all the tracks on the album there is no hidden agenda with this band, the lay their cards down on the table for all to see.

‘Forces’ is another great track and edges almost on the progressive metal sound with its haunting keyboards and rampaging bass lines.  A real tour de force.  Another massive track is the highly emotionally charge ‘Destiny’, which is probably the most full on track on the album.

After the intensity of the last track things take a more gentle repose feel with ‘Prayer For America’ and all the symbolism of 'Destiny' are still featured in this track.  This is more about the country other than the man, but the messages are still the same.

‘Break Free’ is another great modern day soft rocker that just meanders along and carries its listener along for the ride and is a break from the more intense subject matters of the previous tracks.

The album continues its gentle phase with ‘Good Times’ before turning up the heat once more with ‘Forever Now’.  Another one of those multi layered tracks that switches from soft rock to the more hardened rock in the blink of an eye, a great track to get you teeth into.

The band do something completely different with the final two track they completely revamp their own songs firstly they redo the opener ‘Kontrol’, which they do entirely in Spanish to great effect and then for the album closer they give us an acoustic version of ‘Prayer For America’.

One thing that I failed to mention is the vast, and I mean vast interactive section of the CD, if you put the disc into you computer you will unlock a huge extra multi media section that includes a bio for each member of the band a personal message from frontman Paul Topete, pics of the band on tour and at various rallies which are dear to their hearts, video and music clips and much much more this section alone will take you hours to get through but its worth it.

This album is full of political and religious messages that some may agree with and some may disagree with, but one thing is constant the quality of musicianship and song writing from the band.

As I said at the beginning that this album was released back in 2003 and since then so many things have happened in the world as a whole so I’m sure the next album from the band ‘Peace Or War’ will have a lot of subject matter to cover.

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