:: Satellite

P.O.D.

If I was to come back as a teenage girl in 2000, I’d have come back as Britney…If I had to come back as a teenage boy, I’d be the lead singer in a rap-metal outfit. Instant tattoo’s, sculptured facial hair, fantastic black clothing and the unprecedented ability to create pathetic, generic, genre-stripping music. It’s this sort of unimaginative noise that is the domain of Limp Biscuit. For a bit of musical cred, rather follow Korn, who instead of trying to incite violence among their listeners are keen to just inject some funk and filth into their sound. Rap-metal suffers by taking from other genres, without offering anything new in return. There is very often little respect paid to the rappers or the DJs who pioneered this sound, instead the artists tread a carefully sculptured line of hard riffs and loud rants, usually about society or some inexpressible emotion. It’s really kiddie-fare, music for angry teenage boys so predictable it’s silly. Take POD’s Youth of the Nation, a call to the youth of the nation presumably, to rise up and do err…something. You get the low tom-tom drumming, lyrics about skating to school and gunshots, with a chorus simply repeating, we are we are/the youth of the nation. I can almost see the MTV clip now, with different scenarios in the separate kids’ bedrooms. Oh, there’s also a children’s choir in the background. POD (Payable on Death) is clearly a talented band. Bassist Traa dominates the record with some deep, dark work, his bass pushed to the front, working well on Ridiculous, a reggae infused number and probably the best track here. Otherwise, it’s unmemorable rap-metal that will simply go down as the sound of 2000 (noting it’s now 2001). Move on guys.