Pavic-Is War The Answer?

Anteo/ NVM
2014

Italy's Pavic, so named because of founding member/guitarist Marko Pavic, made their debut in 2005 with "Taste Some Liberty". Followed-up by "Unconditioned" in 2008, Pavic, which now includes two new members in lead singer Joe Calabro and drummer Antonio Aronne (and is rounded out by bass guitarist Aleks Ferrara and keyboardist Lorenzo Antonelli), will release this, their third over-all release (and first without any guest musicians), on January 24th. Mixed by producer Rick Beato (Shinedown, Fozzy, Ingram Hill) and sporting a "interesting" cover of Duran Duran's "Notorious" (yes really!) the album finds Pavic moving away from the melodic hard rock that was found on their first two albums towards a more "heavier" direction. Without taking anything away from the group's new front-man Joe Calabro, especially as he has a set of pipes just about perfectly suited for today's modern hard rock radio scene, the mix of heavier material, which in and of itself isn't all that bad (even if it is fairly unconvincing and decidedly unremarkable in it's delivery), and softer material gives "Is War The Answer" an uneven feeling. And, while there is nothing here to suggest that Marko Pavic is anything but an extremely talented individual, there isn't really any numbers on "Is War The Answer" that comes across as anything more then pedestrian. It's very likely that Pavic's latest release will be embraced by fans (as well as those who thought that the mid-00' hard rock radio scene was "To Die For"), but it's highly doubtful that anyone else will bite on this.