Imagine Sting fronting Alice In Chains, and you get a good idea of the interesting sound Ra, named after the Egyptian sun god, has put together for their sophomore release, Duality. Skull-crushing and plodding at times; melodic and thought-provoking at others, Duality is an elephantine collection split in two parts: Fear/Love.

Ra singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer Sahaj Ticotin writes in riddles; his lyrics are often esoteric and hard to decipher. Ticotin goes from penning poetic lines like: "You see I'm kind of paranoid/ My luck, it seems to have run out/ So I will point the finger now/ Beyond a shadow of a doubt," from "Fallen Angels," to writing silly stuff like: "Inside a second you can hear a flower growing in the wind," from "Take Me Away." This schizophrenic writing style is what makes Duality both brilliant and a tad pseudo intellectual at the same time. You get the feeling that Ticotin is writing a little above his own head as well as the listeners'.

The Fear section begins with a spooky-voiced spoken word piece and then jumps immediately into the aforementioned "Fallen Angels." Sahaj, who claims Sting as one of his biggest influences, has the singer's phrasing down pat. On songs like the moody power-chord cruncher "Tell Me" and the Iron Maiden-esque "I Lost Everything Today," Ticotin channels the former Police front man with a healthy amount of passion. "The Only One" traces the worn power-metal path tramped down two decades ago by Metallica. "Superman" is a pensive number that finds Ticotin thanking God for life one minute and then telling him he got the "raw end of the deal" the next.

Love, like Fear, begins with a spoken word piece that leads into the bass-thick "Say You Will." PJ Farley plunges his razor-sharp bass lines through the center of the dual guitar attack of Ticotin and Ben Carroll. Drummer Andy Ryan pounds the skins like a man possessed, on the hard-driving "Got Me Going." "Far Enough" and "Undertaken" bore into the listener's brain like a surgeon's drill. Ticotin's well-tuned crew bring the singer's songs to life with an easiness that makes up for the pseudo intellectualism that permeates the disc. A rollicking cover of the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is definitely the highlight of the album.

If you like to do some deep thinking while banging your head, then Ra is the band you want blaring out of your stereo on a daily basis. Duality, despite its faults, is one of the most intriguing hard rock releases in years.

By Todd Sterling