With its first full-length album, Cleveland four-piece band Chalkline presents an interesting study in modern nihilism.

Self-described as a hybrid of emo and metal, Chalkline has found an audience in Athens and Ohio. Now they're reaching out to the rest of the states.

The lyrics paint pictures of disgruntled youth that most college students can relate to, such as "Our struggle never ends. It recedes and begins followed up by another path" or "Expectation is the death knell of you and I."

But it's not all gloom and doom. With the song "Dive" Chalkline sings of passion: "Take it blindly, embrace me in your arms, never let me go again, lie, give it to me." It's been said before, but the melodic hard-core rhythms make it fresh.

With emo riffs interspersed with delicious hard core, Chalkline will appeal to several specific audiences. Although the album strays toward repetition, it remains compelling with skillful bass lines, moving drum beats and writhing guitar parts.

The out-of-range, sometimes off-key vocals would be criticized in other groups, but in Chalkline they merely convey the group's raw emotion.

Chalkline is a band you can't help but like. With a goofy picture of the band getting a group haircut nestled beneath the CD, you might think of your friend's band ... the boys next door who might someday make it big.

- J. Elig