Some bands peak during their career and then never seem to recover, with each release after their most popular one being not as good as the previous one. P.O.D., who have been around since 1992 and released eight albums, definitely hit their peak with Satellite in 2001. Since that release, the group has seen band member changes and a string of releases that have not lived up to expectations set by Satellite. In Murdered Love, P.O.D. has returned their roots in some of the songs and have put together some really strong tracks, while other tracks on the album seem somewhat out of place by comparison. While this album is somewhat hit-or-miss with the songs, the stronger songs are really good and should help ignite a new fan base and may steer a new generation of listeners back to the roots of the P.O.D. sound.
Murdered Love wastes no time jumping to the heavy side of P.O.D.’s sound with the track “Eyez”, which harkens back to the sound from their earlier Fundamental Elements of Southtown release. Featuring a somewhat ominous-sounding slow, chugging guitar riff and lyrics including “…mark my words and don’t act surprised, it’s goin’ down right in front of your eyes…”, one can see that they have lost none of their abilities to craft heavy songs. The addition of Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed) for some guest vocals to the track only serves to add to the impact.
Continuing in the heavy trend is the title track “Murdered Love”, which sounds as if it would not have been out of place on their earlier album Brown. Marcos Curiel lays down a distorted guitar riff to open things up and then the rest of the band kicks in with power. Near the midpoint of the song, things calm down briefly and pick back up when Sonny begins chanting “Remember me when you step into your glory”, starting with a low spoken voice and increasing each time until hitting a full scream.
Higher is the next track and it continues in the trend of having a sound characteristic of that from earlier releases, and in this case would be similar to sound and song structure found on Satellite. While these songs have elements, style, and structure similar to those earlier releases, they are characteristic P.O.D. in sound and do sound fresh, so this is not a bad thing.
There are songs on Murdered Love, however, that really do seem out of place in comparison to the rest of the album, especially “West Coast Rock Steady”, “Beautiful”, and “Bad Boy”, all three of which to me have a feel and style that is too pop/Top40 radio-friendly in nature. “West Coast Rock Steady”, featuring Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, sounds like it could be a softer version of “Rock the Party” off Fundamental Elements of Southtown, and “Beautiful” sounds like it is a follow-up to “Youth of the Nation” off Satellite. I definitely prefer the more confrontational, in-your-face style songs that P.O.D. is so good at putting together.
The album closes with the track “I Am”, which will definitely raise some eyebrows and unfortunately for me, really left me with an overall feeling of disappointment. The song opens with Sonny proclaiming, “I am the murderer, the pervert, sick to the core…”, and continues on from there with a vivid, graphic description of many types of sin that are common to humanity in our fallen world. The song then continues, “If you knew who I am would you really want to die for me?… Well I know you are the one and only Son of God, but tell me, who the f*** is He!” I understand the viewpoint the song is written from but the inclusion of profanity that is barely electronically blurred seems horribly out of character and out of place for P.O.D. The profanity didn’t offend me, but left me disappointed as it seems that its inclusion is more of a gimmick that actually serves to distract the listener from the rest of the song, which is really strong and portrays how many see their sins as making them unlovable.
Rating: 5/10
Written by John Jackson
Track Listing
1. Eyez (ft. Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed)
2. Murdered Love
3. Higher
4. Lost In Forever
5. West Coast Rock Steady (ft. Sen Dog of Cypress Hill)
6. Beautiful
7. Babylon The Murderer
8. On Fire
9. Bad Boy
10. Panic & Run
11. I Am
Band Members
Sonny Sandoval: Vocals
Marcos Curiel: Guitar
Traa Daniels: Bass
Wuv Bernardo: Drums
Albums:
“Snuff The Punk” [1993]
“Brown” [1996]
“Live at Tomfest” [1997]
“The Warriors EP [1998]
“The Fundamental Elements of Southtown” [1999]
“Satellite” [2001]
“Payable On Death” [2003]
“The Warriors EP, Vol. 2 [2005]
“Testify” [2006]
“Greatest Hits: The Atlantic Years” [2006]
“When Angels And Serpents Dance” [2008]
“Rhapsody Originals” [2008]
“Murdered Love” [2012]
Record Label: Razor & Tie, July 2012
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lol..I must have a special copy..mine ends with a song called ” the sky is falling”