Richmond, Virginia-based Cassius has the elements of a band that I may really like someday. Alas, their debut album I Am Jim Jones does not quite take off in the here and now. It’s not for a lack of trying. Cassius mixes just about every genre you can think of: hardcore, death metal, noise metal, even some progressive and nu-metal elements. To use an old cliché, they throw everything but the kitchen sink at you.

I have no problem with mixing genres. In fact, I encourage it. It shows a complexity and innovation that a lot of music is lacking in these days of cookie-cutter, mass-produced rock. Two albums I enjoyed recently were Blood Mountain by Mastodon and The Second Philosophy by Nahemah. Funny how those albums impressed me with their ability to be innovative and yet rock at the same time, but I Am Jim Jones never really worked for me. The difference is that the Mastodon and Nahemah albums were able to meld those genres into a signature sound all their own. Despite the chaos of their music, it had a structure and purpose, and kept me wondering what crazed place they were going to take things to next. I Am Jim Jones, on the other hand, had me wishing Cassius would have just picked a direction and ran with it. It’s less an album than it is some kind of parlor game where the band just keeps throwing stuff out there to see if they get a bullseye.

There is a lot of ability here. “Tale of the Leper” may be the album’s best track, mixing singer Myke Terry’s death metal rumble with the band’s heavy progressive tendencies. It’s the sort of daring, explosive song Cassius is capable of.  “Deadbeat” is a relentless headbanger with some nice work from the rhythm section of drummer Tommy Snead and bassist Brian Pennington. “Belle Gunness” starts slow, builds up into a thrash metal rocker and then slows down again to a dirge-like doom metal jam. The band also experiments with ambient noise pieces like “Semitone,” “Elate and Subtract” and “Harmony.” The pieces are in place here for a concept album like Blood Mountain. However, mixed in is standard death metal stuff like “Homeauxthug,” “Skingraft” and “Funeral March.” The closing track, “Nickel and Dime,” is perhaps the most revealing, closing the album on an appropriately uneven note.

Overall, the album feels a bit labored, and the band never emerges with a sound that is distinctly theirs. Like I said, they have a lot of ability and they are relatively new (having formed in 2003), so they have time to grow. With that time, the band may become, as Marty McFly once said “something that really cooks.” For now, though, we have the growing pains of a debut album.