“Christian Rock” is an interesting genre. Its bands and fans exist almost exclusively outside of mainstream music circles — there are many huge Christian Rock bands that you and I have probably never heard of. Simply by associating your band with the genre, you drastically limit your fanbase. Being accepted by mainstream fans is almost unheard of; to crossover, you had better be damn good.

Red is damn good.

Breathe Into Me, the first single from Red’s End of Silence, shows the band’s strongest side right up front. Tight vocals, dirty guitars, and an obvious pop sensibility with a big, singable chorus make the song memorable. Falling somewhere between a “less-rappy Linkin Park” and a “slightly heavier Creed,” the track is better than it sounds on paper.

Song structures flop between heavyish but radio-friendly rock and softer ballads. Along with the first single, tracks such as Let Go, Wasting Time, and Break Me Down all deliver distorted-laden hooks. Some of the tracks have backing orchestrial tracks that thicken the band’s sound, and a few of the tracks are flat out ballads. It’s an eclectic range that shows an extreme range of talent. I suspect fans of the band’s heavier tracks won’t care for the ballads as much, and vice versa. By the third spin I was already skipping most of the ballads — a sure sign that they’re destined for the top 40.

The production on End of Silence is impeccable. The disc punches and sounds terrific. Kudos to whoever mastered this. If you are a producer, even if Red isn’t your bag you should hang on to a copy of this disc and use it as a benchmark for your own recordings. Hot, punchy, dynamic. Great work.

If you’ve ever caught yourself tapping your foot to a Creed song (it’s okay if you don’t want to admit it publicly; I wouldn’t) or dig the rock/piano mixture of Evanescence, you should definitely check out End of Silence.

01. Intro
02. Breathe Into Me
03. Let Go
04. Already Over
05. Lost In You
06. Pieces
07. Break Me Down
08. Wasting Time
09. Gave It All Away
10. Hide
11. Already Over – Part 2

Denmark’s latest export is Raunchy, literally. The five-piece outfit cite “Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad, Machine Head, Deftones, and Korn,” as their influences. Wow, I remember when all of THOSE bands were new bands, and I was reading THEIR lists of influences. Fuck I’m old. Anyway, back to the album. Before even reading anything about the band, when I listened to this CD I heard similarities to Fear Factory and Machine Head. Korn, no. Deftones, not really. Strapping Young Lad, no idea. Morten Toft Hansen’s skin pounding and kick drums combined with the tight and tuned-down strumming of Lars Christensen contribute to the Fear Factory-esque sound, and the fact that Lars Vognstrup sounds exactly like Burton C. Bell during most of the opening tracks doesn’t help separate the two. Combine that with Jesper Tilsted’s keyboards paired up with Jesper Kvist’s bass, and it wouldn’t surprise me if these guys used to be in a Fear Factory tribute band. Track one wasn’t even over, and I was done with these guys.

But, ho-ho! Just when I had written these guys off as a clone of “that other band”, they turn around and do something different. Track 3, “Active”, sounds like later Machine Head, almost mainstream metal. The drums sound like a straight forward rock song during much of the track, the guitars aren’t palm-muted, and Vognstrup takes the opportunity to actually do some singing! While proving that these guys are more than a one-trick pony, I get the feeling that these songs were written over a great span of time — although, what they lack in cohesiveness, they make up for in the rock department.

The rest of the album falls somewhere between these two goalposts, with a few blast beats and industrial sounds wandering off the already beaten, nu metal path. I found myself listening to it, but feeling guilty about it later. The songs are catchy but not deep. The music is good, but not outstanding. These guys are the gravy, not the potatoes. They’re no fork, they’re a spork. They’re no Rudolph, they’re … Comet. Not bad but not remarkable, Raunchy is leading the wave in bands waiting in line, ready to grab Fear Factory’s crown.

Tracks:
01. Twelve Feet Tall
02. Bleeding
03. Drive
04. Tonight
05. Leech
06. My Game
07. Crack of Dawn
08. Out of Sight
09. This is Not an Exit
10. Never Be

Back from the dead is Pyrexia. Recently reformed by guitarist Chris Basile featuring an all new lineup, Pyrexia has returned to the death metal scene with Cruelty Beyond Submission, a tasty sampler of things to come for the band.

Including ex-members of Catastrophic, Obituary, Insatanity and Malevolent Creation, Pyrexia’s latest release delivers a skull full of hardcore death metal — that is, if you consider three new tracks a skull full; only three of the tracks on Cruelty Beyond Submission are new. The other eight tracks come from previous Pyrexia albums (System of the Animal, Hatred Anger and Disgust, and Sermon of Mockery). The band has not changed their sound significantly over the years, and the songs flow well between eras.

Pyrexia is working on a new full-length album due this summer, but until then,Cruelty Beyond Submission serves as both a disc to tide fans over until the new album arrives, as well as a greatest hits package and great introduction to the band’s work. Older fans of the band won’t be thrilled about paying full-CD prices for three new songs, but general fans of death metal bands like Suffociation (who make a guest appearance on the disc) should enjoy the brutal attack of Pyrexia.

When Anthrax and Public Enemy teamed up for their version of “Bring the Noise”, I think most people didn’t it as the future of music. At best, I saw it as a novelty act pretty good novelty idea. And then came the Judgment Night soundtrack, an entire album that teamed metal bands up with rock acts. Some of them seemed a bit forced (House of Pain and Helmet comes to mind) while others of them like Onyx and Biohazard began actually laying down the groundwork for a new genre of music that is still popular today – the rap/rock genre.

Those early beginnings opened doors and inspired even more bands to mix their own musical tastes into unique musical mixtures. Sepultura was probably one of the most famous of those, mixing elements of their native South American tribal sounds in with heavy music, creating “Roots,” one of the most interesting and heavy albums of the 1990’s. Another band that has pulled elements from their eclectic background and mixed it with heavy rock is Puya.

Puya’s latest studio album, Union, couldn’t have come at a better time. Nu-metal (God, I hate that term) is beginning to get stale. Anytime music develops a “formula,” it’s nice to have a band come along and break up the monotony.

For those not familiar with their work, Puya has developed a sound that mixes a fairly heavy metal onslaught with the latin sounds of their homeland. I don’t think anyone will confuse Puya with Ricky Ricardo anytime soon, but the salsa influence IS there and present on every track on the disc.

The best part of Puya’s sound is that it doesn’t sound forced. It actually sounds like four latin guys rockin’ hard and letting their background shine through. So many metal bands nowadays sound like they used to be a metal band, they recorded as a metal band, and in post production someone layed down a bunch of DJ scratching sounds over the top of their songs. Not so with Puya – from the drums to the bass to the guitars to the vocals, everything here feels integrated.

The disc opens up with “Ride,” a catchy song that shows off some of their funky latin grooves as well as a blast of tuned down guitars and screaming vocals through the chorus. As a new fan of Puya, I was a little turned off by the lead singer yelling, “this is the Puya / comin’ straight to ya,” over and over through the song, but it grows on you. I’m not a big fan of simple rhyming – “this is the Puya / and we say Booya” would have also been annoying, as well as “this is the Puya / I’d like to do ya” or “I’m gonna goo ya” or even “a cow can moo ya.” All of a sudden, “comin’ straight to ya” doesn’t seem so annoying.

Much like Sepultura’s classic Roots album, Puya’s Union takes some twists and turns down different musical alleys, but always ends back on rock road. The production on the disc is top notch, as are the musicians. In Erizo, the band first delivers heavy licks and Spanish growls, then migrates into a latin tribal groove, before coming back full circle to kick more ass. If nothing else, the music is interesting – the changes interweaving back and forth are done well and never bore or confuse the listener.

Did he say Spanish growls? Yes, that’s right. Some of the album is in Spanish, but the more I listen to it, the less I seem to mind. To me it again draws the Sepultura or even a Brujeria comparison, to where the music grooves so much and rocks so hard that a lot of the time I don’t really care what they’re singing about – and if you do, the lyric sheet has both Spanish and English lyrics printed. No more typing stuff into Altavista’s Babelfish to translate lyrics!

Union is a perfect title for this disc – it’s the perfect union of two styles of music that you wouldn’t normally consider mixing. For metal heads around the globe, hopefully this also represents the union between record stores and their cash! Puya have released a top quality disc that’s certainly worth a spin – whether you know how to mamba or not.

Tracks:
1. Ride
2. People
3. Erizo
4. Socialize
5. Numbed
6. Bridge
7. Si Aja
8. No Interference
9. Semilla
10. Matter Of Time
11. Pa’ Ti Pa’ Mi
12. Ahorake
13. Union

Fearless Records and their stable of artists recently released multiple “Punk Does …” albums. The general idea of each of these albums is the same; each one contains fifteen or so punk bands covering well-known songs from outside their genre.

For the most part the bands are unknowns (at least to me), and fans of “punk” will be quick to point out that most of the bands are much closer to “Blink 182 punk” than they are to “Sex Pistols punk”. Sure, most of the tracks are fast and loud, but rarely are they sloppy or unpolished. A lot of planning goes into making music sound this spontaneous.

The selection of tunes are largely mainstream — I was only unfamilar with one of the 80’s tracks and two of the metal tracks. I didn’t know several of the pop tracks, and that would make sense (modern pop is not my forte’). Some of the songs seem like they’re on the wrong albums; “Send me an Angel”, “Borderline” and “Like a Prayer” (all from the Punk goes Pop album) would have fit better with the other 80’s tracks, and the Metal compilation wastes too much space on hair ballads before breaking out the Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica tunes.

If you think punkish covers of well-known songs are funny and/or entertaining and don’t care about who’s performing them, these are worth your buck. Both the production quality and musical performances are quite good. If you don’t see the point in such ventures, well, these won’t be the ones to win you over.

Punk Goes 80’s

01. Manic Monday – Relient K
02. I Ran – Hidden In Plain View
03. I Melt With You – Sugarcult
04. Your Love – Midtown
05. Don’t You Forget About Me – Rufio
06. Pop Song 89 – Motion City Soundtrack
07. Holding Out For A Hero – Emery
08. Just Like Heaven – Gatsbys American Dream
09. Power Of Love – The Early November
10. Straight Up – Halifax
11. Dead Man’s Party – A Thorn For Every Heart
12. Wrapped Around Your Finger – Brazil
13. Forever Young – So They Say
14. Everyone Wants To Rule The World – Jamison Parker
15. Video Killed The Radio Star – Amber Pacific

Punk Goes Pop

01. Dynamite Boy – I Want It That Way
02. Slick Shoes – Candy
03. Stretch Arm Strong – Get This Party Started
04. Rufio – Like A Prayer
05. Further Seems Forever – Bye, Bye, Bye
06. Noise Ratchet – Crush
07. Element 101 – I’m like A Bird
08. Knockout – Survivor
09. The Starting Line – I’m Real
10. Keepsake – The Way You Love Me
11. Reach The Sky – Sometimes
12. Fake ID – All Or Nothing
13. Showoff – Borderline
14. Thrice – Send Me An Angel
15. Nicotine – …Baby One More Time
16. Student Rick – Heaven Is A Place on Earth

Punk Goes Metal

01. Divit – Breakin The Law
02. Jughead’s Revenge – Talk Dirty To Me
03. AFI – My Michelle
04. Bigwig – War Ensemble
05. A New Found Glory – Heaven
06. Strung Out – Bark At The Moon
07. The Ataris – I Remember You
08. Link 80 – Harvester Of Sorrow
09. Guttermouth – Sexual Abuse
10. Dynamite Boy – TNT
11. Death By Stereo – Little Fighter
12. Swindle – Youth Gone Wild
13. Turnedown – I Don’t Know
14. Diesel Boy – Looks That Kill
15. Rx Bandits – Holy Wars
16. Ten Foot Pole – Love Song
17. The Aquabats – Why Rock?

In the first Pro-Pain review I ever wrote, I posed the question, “Why aren’t Pro-Pain the biggest band in metal today?” That was in a review I wrote for their sixth album, Round 6. I stand here before you today, listening to Pro-Pain’s seventh album (entitled Shreds of Dignity), asking the same question. Why isn’t Pro-Pain the biggest band in metal today?

Shreds Of Dignity, for lack of a better joke, shreds. If Round 6 barrelled along at 90 miles per hour, Shreds Of Dignity kicks it up to a hundred. This album is definitely faster and meaner than their previous release. In true Pro-Pain fashion, the first track (“The Shape Of Things To Come”) blasts into full speed right from the beginning, and the album rarely, if ever, slows down. Occasionally you’ll hear a guitar solo or a bridge into the chorus, but for the most part this is stripped down, no frills, straight forward hardcore.

The faster and more aggressive the music gets, the less melodic it becomes. Shreds Of Dignity suffers slightly in this area, as the band has traded in some of their classic hooks and riffs for straight out pummeling. On their website, the band describes their latest release as an “all out assault on the ears via 12 tracks of sheer sonic brutality.” No sir, can’t argue with that. I’m not sure how much more brutal Pro-Pain could get, unless they began packing a slip of paper with each CD that asks the listener to punch themselves in the face repeatedly while listening to the CD. That would be more aggressive — but not by much.

10 years and 7 studio albums later, Pro-Pain is still here refusing to go away. Using do-it-yourself techniques (the band recorded, produced, and engineered their latest album) and maintaining their workaholic attitude and desire to win, Pro-Pain shows no signs of slowing anytime soon. Recommended for all fans of New York hardcore.

Tracks:
01. The Shape Of Things To Come
02. Gone Fishin’
03. Down For The Cause
04. No Way Out
05. Shreds Of Dignity
06. Walk Away
07. F.O.A.D.
08. Lock N’ Load
09. Casualties Of War
10. 24-7
11. Justice Must Be Done

My review of Round 6, Pro-Pain’s sixth studio album, was my first review to ever run on White Trash Devil. Three years and dozens of reviews later, I find myself here reviewing the band’s ninth release, Run For Cover, 14 cover tunes recorded and released by the band.

Round 6 turned me into a Pro-Pain fan. The combination of the band’s heavy guitars, aggressive riffs, growling vocals and New York attitude hooked me from day one. Never having recorded a cover tune before, the guys of Pro-Pain decided to drop their guard a bit, have some fun, and release this collection of cover tunes guaranteed to please.

For a band that fuses punk, metal, and aggression in their regular set, the list of bands covered should come as no surprise. From Operation Ivy to Sepultura, from Motorhead to Life of Agony, from the Crumbsuckers to Black Flag, from Agnostic Front to Slayer, Pro-Pain covers all the bases and shows their true roots through their selections.

Run for Cover kicks off with a version of Discharge’s “Never Again.” Like all of the songs on the album, Pro-Pain doesn’t try and reinvent these classics, but rather do them in their own style. Pro-Pain’s drum, guitar, and vocal style are all here. The fourteen tracks on Run for Cover are presented as Pro-Pain tunes that just happen to have been written by other people.

A few of the songs, “Circle of the Tyrants” for example, were pleasant surprises. I haven’t heard this song since my Best Of Metal Blade Volume One tape I used to listen to back in seventh grade. As previously mentioned, like all the other tracks on the album Pro-Pain sinks their teeth into this one and makes it their own. While the chorus is instantly recognizable, the playing style is all Pro-Pain.

The band also does a good job on the more recognizable tunes, like Sepultura’s “Refuse/Resist” and Slayer’s “South of Heaven”. Again, the tracks appear mostly in their original form, just aggro’ed up a bit.

Pro-Pain has nailed the perfect mindset of a good cover album — pay tribute to the originals by making them your own. In doing so, the band has created a work of art that stands on its own, and is certainly good enough to hold us over until the next Pro-Pain album. Long live the pain.

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Pro-Pain. Pro-Pain’s Round 6 was the first album I reviewed for WTD, a website that introduced me to a lot of great underground metal bands. Because of that experience, to me Pro-Pain represents all the great metal bands out there that aren’t getting the exposure they deserve.

Pro-Pain’s Fistful of Hate finds the band heavier, tighter, and more aggressive than ever before. Fueled by the war on terrorism and the band’s own patriotism, Pro-Pain has unleashed their most firey incursion to date.

Pro-Pain have honed and perfected their sound over the years, and the crowning production on Fistful of Hate only accentuates it. Pro-Pain’s rhythm section is as tight as Pantera’s ever was — bass notes and kick drums remain highly gated, almost becoming one in the mix. The band’s classic dual guitar sound is back, as are Gary Meskil’s patented vocals.

The band’s last studio album (Run For Cover) was a compilation of fourteen cover tunes. “Can You Feel It?”, the first track on Fistful of Hate, acts as a bridge to 2002’s Shreds of Dignity. Between the tight-ass riffing and the pain-filled growls, listeners will instantly reconnect with the band’s original sound and style.

Pro-Pain continue to push the envelope with their sound by adding a few solos and even some vocal harmonies in a few of the songs — yet overall, the formula remains the same as their past albums: play hard and heavy riffs over rapid-fire beats. On Fistful of Hate, the band has managed to subtly mature their sound without changing the forumla.

On songs like “Fistful of Hate”, “Aftermath”, “American Dreams”, and “Freedom Rings”, Meskil continues to voice his frustration and anger over 9/11 and the events following it (not surprising, coming from a New York-based band). In “Freedom Rings”, Meskil quips, “Texas tea means nothing to me/Does it really mean something to you?”. Later he spouts, “From the rags to the riches to the souls unsung/we gotta get to e reason for this while we’re young/it’s a new generation, damned from the start/it’s a voice of a nation with no heart.” Meskil has never been one to hide his feelings behind flowery language and double entendres. “Can You Feel It?” kicks off with, “So, are you sick of me yet?/well I’m sick of you too/been flappin’ them pork chop lips for days.”

Pro-Pain’s Fistful of Hate is probably the band’s best effort to date; the guys have never sounded better. At the end of the day, if all this website ever did was turn one person on to Pro-Pain, it was all worth it.

Tracklist:
01. Can You Feel It?
02. Left For Dead
03. Godspeed
04. Implode
05. American Dreams
06. Cut Throat
07. Aftermath
08. Save Face
09. The Better Half Of Forever
10. Freedom Rings
11. Lost Horizons
12. Fistful Of Hate

To say I’ve been waiting for this CD for a year is a bit of an understatement. While technically it’s only been a year since Prong released 100% Live, it’s been over six years since 1997’s Rude Awakening, Prong’s last studio effort. And after waiting six years, my biggest concern was that a lot can go wrong in six years time.

Fortunately for both the band and its fans, most of Scorpio Rising goes right. With six years to evolve, not to mention the departure of original members Ted Parsons and Paul Raven, it would be naive not to expect the band’s sound to have changed. And while they have, it’s not in a bad direction.

A few songs on Scorpio Rising are recognizable radio fodder. “Avoid Promises”, “Assurances” and “Out of this Realm” all stick out as “less heavy” tracks, probably destined for radio play. What’s left can be pretty easily divided up into two categories: heavy new stuff, and stuff that sounds similar to classic Prong. Track two, “All Knowing Force,” combines Victor’s pinch harmonics and a classic riff with new, forceful drums — any fear that the band has gone soft is quickly alleviated.

Tommy Victor, original guitarist and vocalist of Prong, proves that he can still write Prong-worthy riffs song after song. New additions Brian Perry (bass) and Dan Laudo (drums) prove they can run with the big dogs as well, although Perry’s bass sound lacks the punch of (original bassist) Paul Raven’s.

The exception to all musical generalizations about the album is “Letter to a ‘Friend'”, a power ballad in the vein of Pantera’s “You Keep This Love” or Megadeth’s “Forclosure of a Dream”. At five minutes even it’s probably a bit long for a radio single, but everything else about the song screams top 40.

While Prong has certainly grown and expanded their horizons over the past fifteen years, they’ve never let go of their roots. On Scorpio Rising, Prong is able to avoid the “nu-metal trap” so many bands as of late have fallen into, and instead delivers an album that shows the band has one foot in the past and one in the future.

While Scorpio Rising is unlikely to produce a “Snap Your Fingers” or “Whose Fist Is This Anyway”, its good enough to stand on its own and let the world know that Prong is back.

Shortly after releasing Rude Awakening in 1996, Prong decided to officially call it quits. Six years later in 2002, Tommy Victor decided to reform the band with an entirely new lineup, winning some fans back and pissing off the rest in the process. The band recently spent six weeks on the road opening for Danzig, during which time they recorded their latest album and first live disc, 100% Live.

If this is the part where I’m supposed to tell you how much I hated this CD due to Prong’s new lineup, you’re going to be pretty disappointed. I’ve seen Prong live twice, and I can honestly say that they’ve never sounded tighter than they do on this disc. So, hate on that.

The tracklisting of 100% Live reads like a greatest hits package, so once you make that mental leap that this is in fact Prong despite the new members, there’s a lot of good material here. “Rude Awakening”, “Broken Peace”, “Snap Your Fingers (Snap Your Neck)”, “Prove You Wrong”, “Whose Fist Is This Anyway?”, “Unconditional”, and all the rest of their hits make appearances here. Each cut sounds as crisp and tight as the original. Die hard fans may be able to tell the difference between this new incantation of Prong and the classic lineup, but I certainly couldn’t.

The new double guitar lineup gives Prong a thickness previously unachieved by the band in live situations. The rhythm section is dead on, and Tommy Victor, despite his new looks, sounds like he did ten years ago. The recording is dead on and the crowd levels are perfect. I have no complaints about the quality of this disc at all. My only complaint is that some of the songs are lacking … well, energy. True, they sound just like the originals, but the spark isn’t always there. The band makes up for it during “Initiation”, the only new track on the album. Available both here and on their website, “Initiation” has that fire and crunch that Prong fans have come to expect from the band.

100% Live serves three purposes. First and foremost, it’s a great collection of Prong songs, performed live. Second of all, it introduces the new lineup to the public. Third of all, it gets Prong’s name back out in the news after a long hiatus, and will hopefully stir enough interest to help push their next studio album (due in April of 2003). 100% Live succeeds at all three of those things. Like it or not, Prong is back.

Tracks:
01. Rude Awakening
02. Initiation
03. Broken Peace
04. Controller
05. Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck
06. Beg To Differ
07. Dark Signs
08. Another Wordly Device
09. Prove You Wrong
10. Close The Door
11. Disbelief
12. Whose Fist Is This Anyway
13. Cut Rate
14. Unconditional