For a brief time around the turn of the millennium, P.O.D. was quite popular. Their aggressive nu-metal sound fit on the radio next to Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, and Korn, and songs like \u201cAlive\u201d and \u201cYouth Of The Nation\u201d are still as well-known by my generation as anything else from the era.<\/p>\n
What set Payable On Death apart was the spiritual, positive lyrics; the music sounded angry, but Sonny Sandoval could sing \u201cI feel so alive \/ For the very first time \/ And I can\u2019t deny You\u201d without a trace of irony, and we were all OK with that. But then many of the fans (warriors) went away to college, original guitarist Marcos Curiel walked away, and that was about it for the angriest-sounding Christian band on the radio.<\/p>\n
As it happened, P.O.D. was far from done, especially when Curiel came back in 2008 for When Angels And Serpents Dance<\/i>. Four years later, the band dropped Murdered Love<\/i>, which reunited them with producer Howard Benson, who helmed 2001\u2019s Satellite, <\/i>considered the group\u2019s commercial and artistic peak. Perhaps working with both Benson and Marcos spurred something in the other three guys, because this is the band\u2019s best work since that album.<\/p>\n
Songs like \u201cHigher\u201d and \u201cLost In Forever\u201d are equal parts aggressive rock and tuneful, swirling choruses. Both have similar lyrical themes about faith and the knowledge of what awaits us after death, even if we don\u2019t quite know what to expect when we get there. Neither here nor in the other tracks does P.O.D. ever hit the listener over the head with their beliefs, for which they deserve credit. The Christian imagery is strongest on the title track, where you can nearly feel the brutal crucifixion and see the blood through Sonny\u2019s words, while the story of \u201cBabylon Is A Murderer\u201d is taken right out of Revelation.<\/p>\n
Along with a strong faith is a strong social conscience, and Sonny does not shy away from sympathizing with the suicidal and abused on \u201cBeautiful,\u201d although the track \u2013 a simple acoustic ballad \u2013 suffers from a disinterested Everclear-esque musical approach that undercuts the seriousness of the lyrics (\u201cFilling up her arms with pretty little lines \/ She cuts with no intent to kill \/ This time she didn\u2019t do it but someday she will\u201d). Between the urges of love in that song and the exhortation to \u201cUnite \/ Never let the dream die!\u201d in \u201cPanic & Run,\u201d it\u2019s clear Sonny is calling us to action, not just empty words.<\/p>\n
The band finds time for a bit of biographical fun in \u201cWest Coast Rock Steady\u201d and the hard rock of \u201cOn Fire,\u201d which name-drops (and sounds a lot like) Rage Against The Machine. \u201cBad Boy\u201d is one of those rare songs where the male protagonist is asking to meet a good girl \u2013 the \u201ckind you take home to meet your mama\u201d \u2013 but the references to being a bad boy and the line \u201cgonna make you a freak tonight\u201d send a mixed message; the song as a whole is the reason why some people dislike this band. <\/p>\n
\u201cI Am\u201d closes things on a somber note, with Sonny speaking for all the sinners and lost (\u201cI am the secret cutter, porn lover, the town drunkard \u2026 The forgotten child ravaged and raped through sex traffic \/ And since I\u2019m a little strange, my daddy called me a faggot\u201d) before delivering the most controversial line (really) of the song: \u201cI know this is the one and only son of God \/ But tell me who the f\u2014k is he?\u201d It\u2019s a fairly brutal lyric set to a dramatic hard rock backdrop that comes straight out of 1999\u2019s The Fundamental Elements Of Southtown<\/i>, and it leaves the listener with an unsettling feeling.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s funny is that, when all is said and done, few of the songs will have the listener reaching for the repeat button. P.O.D. is to be commended for tackling serious subjects and calling believers of all faiths to action, but the punk and reggae influences that used to help define the band\u2019s sound have taken a backseat to straight-up hardcore rap-rock, albeit played with heart and even some enthusiasm. Murdered Love <\/i>won\u2019t win any new Warriors, and seldom does it reach the heights of the band\u2019s past work, but for fans of this band or this style, it\u2019s at least worth a listen or two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":31262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7775],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-42955","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-p-o-d","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42955","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\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42955"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42955"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}