It's a great feeling to watch a band work it like crazy for years, develop, and then release a debut album as good as this. It almost makes you feel like a parent. PAX217 (fka just as Pax) has been playing in Southern California for years, and has been on the brink of being signed for a long time. Now they are coming out of the starting blocks with a sound that rivals 311. For some young lads, they sure have a mature sound. It's like rapcore with a penchant for radio-friendliness. The samples, scratches, and sounds are well placed, the percussion is super tight, the guitars keep it mixed up, but the standout feature is the superclean vocals. The hip-hop genre is properly respected here, but the band turns it into driving rock and roll with chopping and distorted guitars. PAX217 tips the hat and shows some of the same dexterity that their blood brothers in POD possess in the reggae-influenced cut, "Free To Be." Two of the strongest cuts are "Prism," which features a melody line so clean and pop-oriented that it could easily cross over into the Contemporary Hit Radio format. The beautiful harmonies build atop a Plankeye-like guitar line that acts like hands to push the listener back to absorb the full pop force of the chorus. Not forgetting the audience they play to, the counter-verse rocks along with distortion and energy, shouting the line: "Open the floodgates and let the people in!" This song will make this band huge (or something's wrong in this world). The song "A.M." instantly establishes PAX217 as a hard music outfit to be reckoned with. This acronym usually stands for "before noon," but for PAX217 it's a question of: are you "among the masses?" This song seriously jams. There's fun lyrics, like "Sandbox Praise," which bring these boys back to their childhood (come to think about it, that wasn't so long ago!). It floats along in a happy mood not too different than, say, the Channelsurfers. "Check 217" finds the band getting serious: "you better check yourself before you check on me." Sounds like good advice to me. "No Place Like Home" hits on the powerful subject of divorce, begging the question, "...whatever happened to 'til death do us part?'" and begging the request, "Mom and Dad, come back around!" The title drives home a point that begs the listener to appreciate what they've got if they do have a together family. Wow! With deep hooks like these, this song might reach a lot of people and a lot of homes. In Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, you'll find an entry under "pax" that describes the "kiss of peace" in a mass service. In Acts 2:17, you'll read a verse that quotes the prophet Joel: "In the last days, God says, 'I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.'" Neither of these definitions may have anything to do with what the band was thinking when they named themselves, but their youth makes them even more exciting; and their lyrics certainly point to the Prince of Peace. If PAX217 is this good now, how will they sound after a few years of touring? I can't say enough how exciting it is when a band debuts this strongly on the scene.