Calla is a flowering plant, native to cool regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The plant breeds red-berries, which can be eaten and produce a unique sweet and sour taste to the mouth.

Kind of like this 11 track album from a 3-piece of the same name, Calla. Judging from the art-work on the front cover, which looks like a design for a t-shirt that some 18 year old with way to much gel in their hair would wear - I thought it was going to be a venture through an Emo and almost pseudo Heavy Metal act.

However, this wasn’t the case. To my ears, Calla sound like a return to the good ole 90’s post Grunge days, which I have a secret soft spot for. There isn’t any token, 2000 Punk-Emo riffs in Calla – just simple and effective guitar hooks and basic, predictable lyrics. Kind of like what Collective Soul, Soul Asylum and the like were producing back in the early to middle of the 1990s.

The opener It Dawned on Me has a guitar line through out that sounds like something The Edge would pull on a U2 B-Side. Initiate is effective, nice and catchie. Lead singer Aurelio Valle’s voice on It Dawned on Me sounds strangely like Courtney Taylor-Taylor of Dandy Warhol’s fame. However, this is about the only exception and for the rest of the album Valle has a nice rough and raw sound to his cords which suits the music greatly.

According to Calla's website, they have done a lot of live performances and this has had a great impact on the way their music has progressed – which isn’t to hard to hear when listening to Collisions. The recording sounds great, but uses quite basic production techniques. Quite like a live show.

There is nothing here majorly ground breaking on Collisions, yet nothing disappointing either. However, just like the plant – this Calla injects a shocking poison of every song sounding quite bland. By the half way mark, you can’t really remember what you have listened too and your not really looking forward to what’s ahead either.