Combining elements from grunge, industrial, and metal, Filter
\nburst upon the musical landscape back in 1995 with their album
\nShort Bus<\/i> and hit single “Hey Man, Nice Shot.” Whether or
\nnot you believe that singer\/guitarist\/songwriter Richard Patrick
\nactually wrote the song about Kurt Cobain is up to each listener to
\ndecide. He has repeatedly stated that he didn’t.<\/p>\n
Regardless, that bit of publicity – along with the success of
\n“Hey Man, Nice Shot” – helped the band gain new footing and new
\nfans. In the middle of that, the band toured, lost and regained its
\ndrummer and released a follow-up album. What is the title of that
\nrecord? Yeah, it’s
\nTitle Of Record<\/i>.<\/p>\n
One thing that must be stressed out about this album is that it
\nis Richard Patrick’s baby. The former Nine Inch Nails-touring
\nmember tries to emulate the retentiveness that Trent Reznor brings
\nto hiw work. In this case, Patrick writes or co-writes all of the
\nsongs as well as co-producing the album. All of the songs have his
\nown stamp on them. From the opening instrumental “Sand” to the
\nclosing “Miss Blue,” every track reveals the essence that Patrick
\nwas trying to imbue them with.<\/p>\n
The easiest thing to notice, however, is that Patrick and Co. –
\nguitarist Geno Lenardo, drummer Steven Gills and bassist Frank
\nCavanagh – wallow in pity and angst throughout the entire
\nrecording. None of these tracks are what you may call peppy or
\ncheery. They are all very introspective and full of sorrow. Why do
\nI bother mentioning this? Because I don’t want anyone going out
\nthere thinking that this is the music you play while at the family
\npicnic – or maybe you do at yours.<\/p>\n
So, what about the songs? They range from very good to average.
\nI must stress beforehand that none of the songs are bad, but I’ll
\nexplain myself later on. On the good side, you have tracks like the
\ndriving “Welcome To The Fold,” the melancholic (but sweet) “Miss
\nBlue” and the somewhat pop-oriented “The Best Things.” And, of
\ncourse, the hit “Take A Picture.” What should amaze you in all
\nthese songs is that, rather than deliver them in a tone similar to
\nother industrial\/metal singers, Patrick is actually trying to sing.
\nHis vocal delivery, though strained at times, is different from
\nmany other industrial acts, where they’re trying to scream as loud
\nas they possibly can and never pay attention to the beauty of
\nsubtlety.<\/p>\n
However, that same somber and sad mood that permeates the good
\ntracks tend to bring some of the other tracks down. Songs like
\n“Captain Bligh,” “It’s Gonna Kill Me” and “Cancer” tend to be
\nseriously brought down by their own subject matters. I mean, “It’s
\nGonna Kill Me” is about the wrong kind of relationship. It should
\nsound erotic and attractive and not depressing – something dark and
\nsensual. Meanwhile “Cancer” – which talks about the abuse of the
\nEarth by humans – should have sounded more otherwordly. Like I
\nsaid, not bad songs, it’s just that they tend to blend from one to
\nanother in their mood.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the album still manages to cook some more good
\ntunes like “Skinny” and “I Will Lead You.” The sonic wall created
\nby the band and the tough and harsh production values by Patrick,
\nBen Grosse, Rae DiLeo and Geno Lenardo does make the songs catchier
\nand more enjoyable.<\/p>\n
With the success of “Take A Picture,” Filter seems poised to
\ngain new legions of fans. While some of
\nTitle Of Record<\/i> may scare fairweather fans, those that
\nmanage to see through are going to find that Filter is a band
\ncapable of more. Hopefully, we will see that in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":25555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6415],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36761","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-filter","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36761"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36761"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}