‘Beyond Driven’ has a very big, polished sound that has been shorn of any rough edges. It’s a pity because there are some nice ideas and a half-decent tune buried under the attempt at a radio-friendly production sheen which gives it the feel of a 90s major label version of grunge (Alice In Chains springs to mind which is, in my book, not a good thing). The song is also dragged out into an extended instrumental ending, which seems rather showy and wholly unnecessary. ‘The Lions’ begins like yet another one of dozens of bands who harbour secret fantasies of being Black Sabbath. It’s quite atmospheric in places but the flat production and woeful drum sound grate quite a lot on this instrumental. The radio edit of ‘Beyond Driven’ exorcises the horrid jamming which improves things vastly. The Crucible claim to be influenced by ‘the Seattle based bands from the early 90s’ but they sound more like Citizen Dick, the band from Singles than Mudhoney, Tad or Nirvana. Fairly forgettable stuff.
