MattA75's Full Review: Back into Your System [PA] by Saliva
When Saliva emerged in 2001 with Every Six Seconds, it was, for all intents and purposes, the height of nu-metal's mainstream popularity. While Linkin Park was only beginning to break through, other bands, namely Limp Bizkit, Godsmack, Korn and Disturbed, had all broken through to large mainstream success. Success found Saliva, thanks to a marketing campaign that saw Six Seconds being sold for six or seven dollars at many major retailers, and a pair of singles that did well at rock radio, Your Disease and Click Click Boom.
Derided by many critics, including this one, for being too 80s and not original enough, Saliva was a band I could do without ever hearing anything from again. But my buddy at work, Carlene, just wouldn't leave me alone about them. So I finally caved and agreed to give the band's second album, released late in 2002 and titled Back Into Your System, a chance.
THE GOOD
Surprisingly, this isn't going to be a very short paragraph. I found a decent amount to like about this record. For one, on the whole, the songs feel more developed, as if the band actually took the time to make them as good as they could possibly be (with a couple of notable exceptions). Second, on the whole, the songwriting on this record blows away what was on the last record. And third, lead singer Josie Scott proves what I claimed in my review of Every Six Seconds: if the band would let him, he'd lay a claim to being one of the absolute best singers in rock music today.
The best song on the record is Weight of the World, and that's by a longshot. I really like how they decided to make Josie's voice the star of this song. "Love to be beside you, the way you smell, the way your lips feel and your fingernails, the way your fingers crawl up my spine, the way you always make me last in line," damn those lines are amazing. And it's one of the few times on the record where the incessant power chord riffing doesn't grate on my last nerve.
The first single, Always, was a song I wasn't wild about when I first heard it, but it's come to grow on me, and I've come to realize that this is kind of the band taking their old, more heavy sound and putting their new, more melodic rock sound together with it. I think it works pretty well here.
My favorite musical moment on the entire disc probably comes on the title track, when Josie hums along to the little guitar line that forms the crux of the song. It just sounds so damn soulful and playful at the same time, almost as if he's unsure whether to do it or not.
In fact, throughout much of this record, it feels as if Josie is trying to find himself as a singer. But by the time you get to Rest in Pieces, a great showcase for how good his voice can be, not to mention his range, it's obvious that he's gotten a good bearing on what he can do when asked to actually sing and not just scream and shout like some overbearing ape.
And then there's Holdin On, which sounds like The Black Crowes collided head on with Sevendust, but it's not quite the train wreck that that description might lead you to believe.
THE BAD
Alright, the gloves are off. First off, Superstar II sucks. I'm unsure whether this is a re-write of Superstar from the last disc, or merely a continuation, but either way, it's f*cking terrible. The fact that this is what greets you when you pop this CD into the player is a travesty, given the very good songs that could've welcomed you with open arms.
Next up is Raise Up. Let me get this straight: we go from the above quoted lyric in Weight of the World to "Two new tour buses cause my voice is infectious?" Huh?
In general, the album suffers from a serious lack of creativity when it comes to the guitar playing. This is especially disappointing given the strides the band made as songwriters. It's not a good thing when Beavis and Butthead could perform 2/3 of your album just by going "duh duh duh" over and over.
THE UGLY
The last song, Famous Monsters, tries so hard to be more than it is. Instead, it cowers under the faux emotional spin the band puts on it.
All in all, Back Into Your System is a big improvement over Every Six Seconds. The songwriting is improved, the band put more time into some of these songs, and Josie's voice is given a chance to shine. However, as long as the band is determined to continue down the path where every other song has to have some retreaded nu-metal "riff", they will be nothing more than a mediocre band. Here's some advice guys: ditch the nu-metal hysterics, the awful rap/rock stuff, and become a straight up hard rock band. You, and the music listening public at large, will be much better off.
That said, I do recommend this as a "give it a chance" purchase, as it's much much better than I ever expected it to be. And who knows, you might find even more to like about it than I did.
In rock and roll, a lot can happen in a short time. For Saliva, one of the biggest and most promising new rock bands on the planet, that s especially ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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