The Alternative Metal Thread

System Of A Down - "System Of A Down" (1998)

I was very late to get on the System Of A Down train if I’m being honest. When they made their mark on the global metal scene in the first part of the 2000’s I was still very much entrenched in the electronic music scene that took me away from my metal roots for a good decade so (even though I’d seen them perform live on the main stage at a Big Day Out Festival in Sydney during the peak of their early 2000’s popularity) I didn’t really understand what they were all about until well after they’d already called it quits. It was their legendary 2001 sophomore album “Toxicity” that finally saw me standing up & paying attention & it’s proved to have the strength & endurance to make a lasting impression on me in the many years since. The submission of SOAD’s 2005 fourth album “Mezmerize” as a The Gateway clan feature release in May 2022 only saw my opinion on the band’s merits being further consolidated as it’s another high quality piece of work. At no stage have I ventured back to explore the SOAD's other works until now though & it seems like a bit of a gap in my metal knowledge to be honest so I’ll be rectifying that oversight in the coming weeks.

System Of A Down’s self-titled debut album isn’t all that different to their later releases from a stylistic point of view to tell you the truth & if you enjoy “Toxicity” then you’ll likely find a reasonable level of gratification here too as the same mix of elements was already in play. What we have here is a quirky & intentionally off-the-wall approach to alternative metal that occasionally steps right over into nu metal territory for a song or two. There’s a noticeable hardcore punk backbone to this music that is really the source of a System Of A Down’s addictive electricity while their penchant for a bit of controlled weirdness was already clearly evident, particularly during the back end of the record. Front man Serj Tankian’s general insanity is offset by a distinctive, versatile & quite piercing & powerful delivery that never comes close to repetition or boredom while the crunchy hardcore-driven power chord riffs & bursts of thrashy aggression solidify SOAD’s credentials as a dangerous & potent force to be reckoned with.

In saying all that though, I don’t find “System of a Down” to be as appealing as “Toxicity” or “Mezmerize” & it’s the quality of the song-writing that’s the differentiator here. You can see that very obviously when you hear the one-two punch of the two clear highlight tracks in “Suggestions” & “Spider” (my personal favourite & the most rocky & accessible number on the album with it’s hints at a Tool influence) as the rest of the album is clearly not at the same level of memorability or class as those two inclusions. There’s not many failures as such though with only the short & overly quirky “CUBErt” not hitting an acceptable level of appeal for me personally but I don’t think there’s any doubt that the quality trendline sits a touch lower with this album than it did with the other SOAD records I’m familiar with. It’ll be interesting to see how I feel about the remaining SOAD releases given that they’re perhaps not quite as widely celebrated as this one which I regard as an entertaining, well executed & generally fun alternative metal album that will unfortunately very likely drift off into my past without much fanfare with me reaching for other SOAD releases when I feel the need to scratch that particular itch.

3.5/5

System of a Down - "Hypnotize" (2005)

SOTD's most recent studio album doesn't offer anything all that different to what they'd offered previously. The nu metal influence that popped up occasionally on their early works is nowhere to be found & there's perhaps a stronger thrash metal & punk influence than on some of the band's previous releases but you won't find anything terribly surprising here. I quite like "Hypnotize" but it's not on the same level as SOTD's elite releases in "Toxicity" & this album's companion album from the same year "Mezmerize". It sits very much on par with the band's 1998 self-titled debut album in terms of quality in my opinion. In fact, I'd probably take this one over that more highly regarded release. "Hypnotize" is worth a couple of listens but I don't think it'll be one that SOAD are remembered for.

3.5/5

System of a Down - "Steal This Album!" (2002)

When I first made the decision to fill in the gaps in my understanding of Californian alternative metallers System of a Down’s widely respected back catalogue a couple of months ago, I think I subconsciously expected each release to sound drastically different from each of the other four. I mean, I’d found SOTD’s two strongest album’s (2001’s “Toxicity” & 2005’s “Mezmerize”) to sound so fresh & original when I first encountered them with the band’s quirky, avant-garde edge not sounding much like anyone else at the time so it was the obvious assumption given how wacky & infectious some of their musical excursions tend to be. It never occurred to me that SOTD could fall into some kind of comfortable groove that would see each album sounding relatively similar but that seems to be the way the chips have fallen to an extent. Don’t get me wrong, they’re such a talented bunch of musicians that they’ve never really come close to releasing anything subpar but neither have the three remaining albums lived up to the expectations set by my first SOTD experiences.

Anyway, that being said, 2002’s “Steal This Album!” record is the last of System of a Down’s five full-lengths that I’ve chosen to explore & it could be forgiven for sounding relatively similar to 2001’s “Toxicity” given the circumstances around the release. The material included on “Steal This Album!” is essentially a bunch of leftovers from the “Toxicity” sessions that originally saw the light of day through unofficial means when rough demo versions of the songs hit the internet under the “Toxicity II” title. This apparently disappointed the band enough to see them quickly engaging producer Rick Rubin to produce an official release that includes a full sixteen tracks that the band have always maintained are of a similar quality to “Toxicity” but didn’t quite fit the concept for that album. Given that information, it’s really pretty impressive that SOAD have delivered a record that can stand on its own two feet alongside the band’s other full-lengths.

Unsurprisingly, “Steal This Album!” sounds a little less cohesive than the System of a Down's stronger records & the inclusion of a full sixteen tracks seems a touch ambitious in all honesty. A little trimming wouldn’t have gone astray here & could have led to a more consistent product in my opinion. The tracklisting starts off brilliantly with two of the best & most memorable songs on the record before continuing at a reasonable level of quality for the remainder of the A side. Things start to get a bit shaky from track nine though with three or four filler songs being tossed out in relatively quick succession before things are rapidly resurrected at the end with the other two best inclusions closing out the album. I tend to get a touch lost during weaker material like “36”, “Pictures”, F**k The System” & “Ego Brain” to tell you the truth so it takes me looking at the album holistically for me to get an accurate gauge on my feelings.

I’d suggest that “Steal This Album!” is a slightly less intense record than some of System of a Down’s other works with full throttle opener “Chic ‘n’ Stu” being the obvious banger. There are a few more stripped back numbers included (like the excellent acoustic number “Roulette”) & it’s easy to see how those particular songs may not have fit into “Toxicity” as a creative statement, despite still being strong material. The band sound as tight & talented as ever here so, even though I’d suggest that this is the least impressive of System of a Down’s five albums, it’s not far behind the self-titled & “Hypnotize” in terms of general quality & easily keeps the Faith No More’s & Dir en Grey’s of the alternative metal world on their toes.

3.5/5

Scatterbrain - "Here Comes Trouble" (1990)

One of my best mates at high school picked up the debut album from New York's Scatterbrain very shortly after it was released off the back of the super-popular novelty single "Don't Call Me Dude" which resulted in me receiving a dubbed copy. Even though there's a clear tongue-in-cheek attitude behind the album, I quite enjoyed it too & a lot of that has to do with the high-quality musicianship & the general thrashiness of the material. Despite "Here Comes Trouble" generally being tagged as a funk metal record, that's a misleading guide as to what you'll ultimately hear with only a couple of tracks sitting in genuine funk metal territory. The remainder is very much a hybrid of alternative metal & some really well executed thrash metal that clearly showcases the band members roots in crossover band Ludichrist. I'd describe the album as a combination of the funk/alternative metal of Faith No More, the classy thrash metal of Megadeth & the snot-faced crossover thrash fun of Suicidal Tendencies. The opening titled track is a 90's thrash classic in my opinion while songs like "I'm With Stupid", "Down With The Ship (Slight Return)", "Mr. Johnson and The Juice Crew" & the much-talked-about "Don't Call Me Dude" are all really solid too. There are a couple of stupid inclusions like neoclassical metal instrumental "Sonata #3" & comedy/novelty rock closer "Drunken Milkman" that bring things back a bit & the funkier tracks aren't as appealing to me personally but this is still a surprisingly decent metal record & I seem to remember every second of it too.

3.5/5

might be pretty random but how do you guys remember Creed? did you think they were shit like everyone else? are you willing to revisit some Creed at the present day just to see if they were really that bad? Not really alt metal but I consider them to be pretty close to the genre, if not for just the influence. Idk, when I think of butt rock sounding stuff, I just think of Creed. I don't really know if that's influence but hey, they were a pretty big band, weren't they? well, personally, I think Creed are pretty good. Sure, the singer is one of the more famous examples of Eddie Vedder from Wish but I do really think they were a pretty nice band. This came to light for me when I read someone saying that Human Clay is a pretty good album and I decided to check it out. I didn't listen to the whole thing but I did listen to a few tracks, particularly a few of the ones I remember and yeah, it was pretty nice. Maybe they're a guilty pleasure for me, like how Maroon 5 is. 

I'm not really a fan of Creed, but I'm already familiar with a couple singles from them like "With Arms Wide Open" and "My Sacrifice", whether they appear on the radio or have been shared by one of my rock-loving outside-world friends. My brother is a fan of post-grunge/hard rock/alt-metal (Skillet, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, etc.), so he probably wouldn't mind a bit of that band. Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti would later form a couple alt-metal bands with progressive/thrash tendencies, Alter Bridge (alongside fellow Creed members bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips) and Tremonti, and I would recommend checking out those two bands. Like Creed, but heavier!

I can't say that I've ever invested much time into Creed but the material I have heard has had nothing much to do with metal. If you think there are some Creed releases that should qualify for inclusion in the Academy database then feel free to advise which ones they are & I can arrange to have them added as Non-Metal. That way you can nominate them to be added to the Hall of Judgement so that people can vote on whether to include them here or not.

I just found this Creed song that's probably the closest they've gone to alt-metal. That video-game-styled music video though...

Anthrax - "Sound of White Noise" (1993)

The early 90's was a terrifying time to be a classic thrash band. By 1993, the grunge scene had unceremoniously stripped thrash metal's audience with some of the remainder being carried away by the death/black metal boom so many of the major bands were all fighting for a smaller market share. Pantera had also hit on a key niche of the market with their fresh new groove metal sound that had taken the metal scene by storm &, in order to survive in that environment, many artists simply chose to jump onboard the grunge or groove metal bandwagons with mixed results it has to be said. Big Four member Anthrax was one such act with their 1993 sixth album "Sound of White Noise" seeing the five-piece transitioning away from their thrash metal roots for a sound that took an each-way bet on the grunge & groove metal movements. Many fans would immediately jump off the train but the inclusion of talented Armored Saint front man John Bush in place of classic Anthrax singer Joey Belladonna had certainly peaked my interest, particularly given that I was a huge fan of Bush's work on the Saint's 1991 fourth album "Symbol of Salvation". Ben would purchase "Sound of White Noise" on CD upon release & we'd both spend some time adjusting to the new Anthrax direction. Interestingly, I recall both of us really enjoying it & nothing much has changed there either.

Although "Sound of White Noise" is generally regarded as a groove metal release, I would argue that there's actually a lot more alternative metal here, easily enough for a dual primary tag with thrash metal being the lone secondary influence. To say that "Sound of White Noise" sounds like a different band to the one we heard on classic thrash records like "Among The Living" or "Spreading the Disease" is not entirely accurate though. You can still clearly hear a lot of the techniques the band had made their calling cards but they're used more sporadically here. Tracks like "Potters Field", "Invisible", "C₁₁ H₁₇ N₂ O₂ S Na" & "Burst" would have comfortably fit on earlier Anthrax records though so this isn't a completely foreign environment for extreme metal fans. Bush's more masculine vocals are certainly a little different from Belladonna's but not to the point that you couldn't easily imagine him singing the earlier classics pretty successfully. I personally gravitate more to the Bush tone anyway so this change was always gonna appeal to me. He doesn't nail everything in front of him here but, after a few listens, I can't imagine too many punters feeling like he'd rained on the Anthrax parade.

The eleven-song tracklisting doesn't tend to unveil all of its charms upon first listen & repeat listens definitely see it opening up progressively more. There are a couple of genuine Anthrax classics on show if you're open to discovering them. The obvious highlight of the record is the anthemic single "Only" which possesses an absolute belter of a chorus hook & is the best reference for the skill set that Bush brought to the band you're likely to find. High-octave, energetic alternative thrasher "C₁₁ H₁₇ N₂ O₂ S Na" is also an underrated gem & I've found that it's dug its talons into my flesh to ever greater depths over the last week. The rest of the tracklisting ranges from pretty decent to very solid with only the lackluster alternative metal number "Hy Pro Glo" failing to offer me any level of appeal. Perhaps there aren't enough tier one inclusions to see "Sound of White Noise" pressing for Album Of The Year honors but it certainly had enough about it for Ben & I to remember it very fondly amongst our childhood memories.

So, where does "Sound of White Noise" sit in the prestigious Anthrax back catalogue then? Well, it might surprise a few people to hear that I actually rate it somewhere in the middle rather than towards the bottom rungs. I'd comfortably take it over the legendary New York thrash metal establishment's 1984 debut album "Fistful of Metal" & also feel that it's a more consistently interesting record than 1988's "State of Euphoria" fourth album which was more acceptable than it was impressive. Many people seem to try to tarnish this record with a harshly-worded groove metal brush but that's not a true reflection of the quality of the song-writing or the professionalism in the performances. Anthrax were a high-quality metal act who have produced another high-quality metal record here in my opinion but there's no doubt that it requires thrash fans to go into it with an open mind.

For fans of Acid Drinkers. Prong & Sepultura.

4/5

I hit random on my full library to try and get myself through a writing rut, and landed on this more recent Lacuna Coil album. Review below. 

A Harsh Duet

Lacuna Coil have turned into one of those bands from my early music listening that I've come to regret somewhat. It's not that I was ever a massive fan or anything, it's just that their 2002 album Comalies gave me a bit of false hope that persisted for much too long. Comalies still holds up to me as an interesting and dreamy set of Gothic tinged Metal that has a very unique feel and atmosphere to it that, while not superb, hasn't been replicated too often. From then on, however, Lacuna Coil have wandered down the straight and narrow Alternative Metal path which is filled with straightforward songwriting and generic djenty chugs that have been done a million times over. Starting with Dark Adrenaline in 2012 they've found their formula and stuck with it to a ton of commercial success, but I can't say it does much for a seasoned listener who still insists on checking to see if this band decided to go back to their original, more unique sound.

Despite frontwoman Cristina Scabbia being the main draw for most, Black Anima is much more of a duet between her and bassist Andrea Ferro as they trade back and forth much more often than in previous albums. Ferro's vocals are also much more harsh centric, with his growls not sounding half bad with Lacuna Coil's heavier and more chug-centric approach this time around. While he's known for his awkward and divisive crooning, Black Anima has sidelined it to a few short moments in "Sword of Anger" and "Veneficium", replacing it with surprisingly inoffensive growls and fried cleans that compliment the heavier riffing style much better than his old standard. Scabbia proves to still be a Swiss army knife in the vocal department, swapping between forceful Power Metal like leads on "Sword of Anger", a more classic and gothic delivery on "Black Anima", and even tries her hand at a more screamy angle on the chuggy "Now or Never". Lacuna Coil were definitely going for a heavier album this time around so the bouncing between harsh and clean works in its favor, something I'm all too familiar with from other female fronted bands. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the two work together given how rough Ferro's vocals have been in the past, so that shows some massive growth for the band, especially this late in their career. Despite generic nature of the harshes, the interplay between the two is easily the highlight of the album as they do a great job of carrying the energy of each track.

Sadly that's about the only positive thing I have to say about this album, as the rest of the package falls in some sort of gray area between acceptably generic and downright boring. I can respect Lacuna Coil for trying to dial up the heaviness by incorporating djent-y chugs and even some Metalcore sounding snippets in tracks like "Now or Never" and the beginning of "Layers of Time", but most of the riffs end up falling flat due to being simple and unremarkable or just buried behind the wildly mixed drums and bass. It's just a guess, but it seems like they wanted to have a super punchy and rhythmic mix, but the unison chugs are about the only thing that sound cohesive on the album. The kick drum and bass are blown out to the point where they overtake pretty much every riff, with the bass being scratchy and overpowering in more sweeping sections like on "Now Or Never". Don't get me wrong, I'm a bass enjoyer, but even I was a bit taken aback when the djent chug was completely taken over by the bass throughout most of the album. I can commend Lacuna Coil for taking their style to the more extreme end as I don't think this album is entirely bad, but it leaves much to be desired apart from the admittedly interesting vocals. I'm glad that Ferro stepped up his game in order to be a worthy duet to Scabbia, but it feels like the rest of the band didn't catch the memo as the entire album consists of tracks that are varying degrees of fine and somewhat interesting for a few sections. 

2.5/5