The first recommendation I received with Nanobot was State Line Empire. I eagerly jumped at the opportunity. Who wouldn’t want to listen to these guys?

Who are these guys?

I began looking into them about a month ago and finding anything then was slightly difficult. Coming back to it this week, I had no problem finding them. If a month is any indicator of the potential growth these guys have, they’re going to be huge.

Opening with “Drive Me” you’re hit in the face by the Slash-like guitar. Fitting, since it is the former Guns-N-Roses rock demigod playing on the single. Winners of the Guitar Center’s “Guitar Center Presents Your Next Record with Slash” these Bay Area boys hit the ground running.

Having rather large expectations, like having Slash nominate you for an album and playing on a single, in the rock community can be intimidating to an up-and-coming band like this. The four tracks Octane offers show anything but intimidation. Stepping onto the scene as a serious contender these guys offer up a rock blend of Avenged Sevenfold pace with the pounding lyrical drum fusion of Seether.

Now, I’ve been away from the hard rock scene for some time now and having the opportunity of listening to these four songs gives me hope to the future of the genre. It’s nice to hear something not so angry, grumbly wanna-be Metallica hit the shelves. As the average rock fan has either gone one of two ways, onto the harder angrier styles of screaming vocals or onto the sellout sissy bedwetter style the likes of Linkin Park, a band like SLE can offer an abrupt smelling salt-like awakening to the real fan inside. Come back to the heart of rock, put down the albums that have led you astray and reach out to these guys. Be sure to hang on tight because I see them taking off. You heard it here first. Unless you heard it somewhere else, and then I ask “you don’t call, you don’t write, why are you hearing things elsewhere first?”

Falling into line of the rock laid before them by the likes of Seether and early Avenged Sevenfold, State Line Empire steps up to the plate to offer up a refreshing outlook on the future of rock. Get it. Listen to it. Feel the hope and rock on.