A commonly heard complaint from nu-metal's early detractors was that the genre had a distinct lack of catchy tunes. As irrelevant as this view may seem, considering that bone- crushingly heavy riffs, not sing-along ditties, have always been at the core of metal's popularity, even devoted Korn and Mudvayne fans have been known to lament the sameness of many nu-metal bands' sound. Enter FROM ONE, the debut album from Ra. Seemingly borrowing as much from the Beatles as from Black Sabbath, lead singer and main songwriter Sahaj Ticotin possesses a sense of melody and songcraft so highly developed that it would likely please fans of alternative pop bands like Matchbox 20. In this respect, the quartet often sounds like a much heavier, less progressive version of King's X or Faith No More. Considering that Ra isn't afraid to make liberal use of clean guitar sounds and multi-layered vocal harmonies, some may deny that the group plays metal at all. Even a cursory listen to FROM ONE, however, reveals that the band's super-tight start-stop rhythms and de-tuned guitars are cut from the same Metallica-influenced cloth as their contemporaries' cookie monster-vocal filled sonic onslaughts.