by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

It was only a matter of time before someone added obvious hooks and electronic smarts to the post-industrial roar of alt-metal. That's exactly what Orgy does on its debut album, Candyass. It's hard to call this stuff industrial, since its sensibilities are directly out of metal -- hard-hitting riffs, big hooks, and tight songwriting -- but since Orgy is living in the electronica age, everything is given a computerized surface, complete with processed guitars and thundering digital bits. It's a now sound, no two ways about -- it's of the moment, totally 1998, and that's why it's hard to actually judge its merits. Candyass has the intoxicating rush of a new sound, but it's hard not to feel like all of its pleasures are on the surface. Still, you take pleasures where you can get them, and Orgy offers more than expected on this promising debut.