Before I start this review, I should probably clear up a few things about P.O.D.:

1) Yes, they are a Christian band. You can draw up any argument you want about the people they’ve toured with and the places they’ve been ever since The Fundamental Elements of Southtown hit it big, but there’s no denying the in-your-face Christian message in their music.

2) I used to make fun of P.O.D. (that‘s Payable On Death, just FYI), often in music reviews written for this site. I used to resent P.O.D.’s mainstream success, because I thought they were an awful band that belonged safely tucked away in the confines of the Christian hard rock underground, their message being too preachy and abrasive to be taken seriously in the mainstream music world, especially when measured up against many of my favorite bands, who were obviously more lyrically and musically gifted, and yet remained invisible to the world at large.

3) P.O.D. has definitely changed. I have never been so grateful for a band’s evolution - the more groove-laden styles that I did enjoy from their last album can be found here in spades, and the more extreme, screaming, moshing, awkward-tempo-shifting stuff has been scaled back considerably. That may have cost them a few fans, but they have definitely not sold out in a hardcore subculture where people judge you by how violent and fast and scary you can be.

4) It was an ironic coincidence that P.O.D.’s brand new album Satellite was released on September 11th. In light of such tragic events, I’m sure that very few people’s minds were on what new CD’s they could run out and buy that day. That may have stifled the buzz surrounding this CD, and again, that’s a pretty insignificant thing to worry about! Yet at the same time, it’s no surprise that P.O.D.’s hard-hitting approach (as well as the sensitive side that shows up on a few songs) speaks to those dealing with this crisis in ways that could not have been planned.

In other words, it’s going to shock some of you that I like the new P.O.D. album as much as I do. I’ve been proven wrong - they truly had a great record in them (even though this one has a few missteps here and there). The band has wisely expanded on past hits such as “Rock the Party (Off the Hook)” and “Set Your Eyes to Zion”, emphasizing the heavy groove and the reggae over the hardcore thrash of “Southtown” (which was a good song, but not as tight as it could have been). Their lyrics have backed off a bit from the “Follow Christ or end up in hell” attitude that was more or less apparent on their past albums - apparently somebody has learned how to speak the truth in love. Even while Southtown was making waves and I was whispering “bah humbug”, figuring that most of the moshers buying into this stuff either couldn’t tell what the heck they were screaming about or didn’t care, I actually respected P.O.D.’s actions. Out there in the mainstream music world, they had to grow up awful fast. Mixing and mingling with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Slipknot, Hed P.E., Limp Bizkit, etc., I’d have to say the boys from the South did a bang-up job of spreading the love and staying true to their beliefs. Those actions were a major victory for the Christian music industry, and now the actual music has finally caught up.

Set It Off
We real and we‘ve outlasted your phoniness
So you best to come correct
You want to disrespect
Why do cowards talk the loudest?
A thundering drum beat kicks the album off, and before you know it, you’re hooked on a blasting groove that won’t let go. P.O.D. keeps their hard edge on this explosive tune, ripping into the negative messages so prevalent in today’s music as Sonny Sandoval shouts out his message of hope, sticking mostly to raps and whispers. The chorus reverts back to his abrasive screaming from the olden days, but still retains that triumphant feel and never strays from the groove of the song: “RISE! Let your spirit fly!” It has all the makings of a hit hard rock single, but its message is a non-violent one, simply rallying the “warriors” (that’s what the band calls their fans) to stand up for what they believe in and affect the world around them in a positive way. P.O.D.’s trademark end-times references are more played down, but still present - it’s kind of interesting that Sonny’s pronunciation of “Armageddon” sounds more like “Arma-Gideon”. I also get a chuckle out of the line “Don’t find it funny, but I smile at your sarcasm.” Not the sort of reaction I would normally have to a P.O.D. song, that’s for sure.

Alive
Sunshine upon my face
A new song for me to sing
Tell the world how I feel inside
Even though it might cost me everything…
This song took off well before the album hit the streets. My first impression of this driving rock anthem was that it was way too happy and melodic for P.O.D., but now that it’s had its chance to sink in, I realize that it took a lot of chutzpah for the group to put forth such optimistic lyrics as their first single out in a genre where hopelessness and violence are so often the prevalent themes. And besides, it’s catchy - I so prefer this to the old P.O.D. Several critics have noticed that this record is a lot more soulful than most of what the hard rock world is doing, and you can definitely feel it here - Sonny’s new lease on life may seem out of place, but it’s definitely not forced. Bright hope in a dark world. I also have to give the band props (and kristinafh is gonna hate me) for knocking N*Sync out of the top spot on TRL with this one. Then again, it’s not like I watch MTV. I prefer to watch music videos in their entirety whenever I have a choice!

Boom
I‘m sure you heard about a new sound going ‘round
She might have left my hood but she was born in my town!
Another blistering guitar riff picks up right after the ending of “Alive”, leading into yet another triumphant and slamming tune - this one’s a good follow-up to “Rock the Party” from Southtown, and it serves a similar purpose. It’s basically a catchy theme song for P.O.D., the “boys from the South” (San Diego, to be exact). It’s a shout out to their fans and all the places that they’ve been - not a terribly deep song, but great fun to shout along with as all the guys simultaneously scream “BOOM!” The bridge gets a little repetitive with Sonny’s taunting screams of “Is that all you got? I’ll take your best shot!”, but it doesn’t really bug me. I can tell this one’s going to hit it big when they release it as a single - at least, if the band puts it out when America’s wounds aren’t so fresh. Apparently, one of the powers-that-be responsible for homogenizing radio play lists has included this song on their hit lists of songs not to play in the wake of the crisis, for fear that any song mentioning explosions or even sounding remotely violent will be too much for people to handle. I admire the attempt, but they’re totally missing the point of the song. I’m sure the band was left scratching their heads over that one. (Hey, at least they didn’t get all of their songs denounced like Rage Against the Machine did.)

Youth of the Nation
Maybe this kid was reaching out for love
Or maybe for a moment he forgot who he was…
Now here’s a new one on me - a kids’ choir in a rapcore song. Okay, I guess you can’t really call P.O.D. rapcore anymore, since there’s more singing and less “core” in the mix. Still, this one’s a definite winner, even if the disparate elements take some getting used to. From the almost shocking lyrics of the song that describe the lives of a few troubled teenagers - one of them retelling a harrowing tale of getting shot in the chest by another kid at school - you might think that this belongs in a long list of songs inspired by the shootings at Columbine High School. Actually, it came about when P.O.D. arrived at practice one day and found out there had been a shooting at the high school next door. It kind of floored them, even though they grew up in a tough neighborhood where a lot of stuff like that went on, and that night their guitarist Marcos came up with a spooky riff that forms the backbone for this song. The chorus is a chilling, reggae-like chant that serves as an ironic call of unity: “We are, we are the youth of the nation.” When the kids choir joins in later in the song, it’s enough to give you goosebumps. Some may write it off as being a little hokey - using kids is the oldest trick in the book, but sometimes the oldest tricks work the best. If it’s good enough for the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Aeroplane”, it’s good enough for P.O.D.

Celestial
What would a P.O.D. album be without a few short instrumental interludes to break up the tension. This one fares a little better than most of the intermissions on Southtown, resting on a solid percussive backbone and an appropriately spacey guitar part, and it dies out before it has a chance to get old.

Satellite
No fear, less tears, only time to catch my breath
I fail to inhale, your love constricts my chest…
A strong, faster-paced guitar riff leads straight into this one, and as the drums kick in, all of the guys can be heard in marvelous unison singing the title of the song (and the album). Yeah, that’s right, all of the guys in this band can actually sing. Wonders never cease - they’re actually quite good! Of course, Sonny still takes the lead on this intensely personal song. You might not know it from the fast pace and the wonderfully half-rapped and half-sung verses, but this is one of two songs on the record written about the death of Sonny’s mother. It’s amazing to see such a sensitive side of a band that grew up in a hardened gang neighborhood (trust me, these are the kind of guys that you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley - at least, not if they weren’t devout Christians!) as Sonny calls out to his departed mother, picturing her hovering somewhere nearby, watching his every move and encouraging him to keep the faith from beyond her grave. It’s interesting that this song ended up being the title of the album - it too has great single potential, though I’d have to say that it deviates from the theme of most of the album, which seems to be drowning out the negativity in today’s urban culture. The ending may be a little abrupt and sloppy, though I do like the eching “Are you there?”s a lot. And I have to give the band props for finding a way to work the word “asinine” into a song.

Ridiculous
Put on the full armor
‘Cause you know these fools, they‘re gonna wanna
Talk behind your back, but stay away from the drama…
Sweet! You can’t begin to imagine the frustration I was going through trying to find a decent version of this track online before the album was released. See, P.O.D. recorded a pretty cool demo with reggae star Eek-a-Mouse earlier this year and released it for a limited time online, but every single version I downloaded had skips like crazy. I thought at the time that this was just a cool B-side and it wouldn’t be on the album, but I was seriously grooving to this one. They redid it for the album, keeping Eek on backup and adding a touch more grit to the guitars, but mostly sticking to the dominant reggae/hip-hop feel of the demo version. This song pulls no punches in lambasting the “haters” out there who make a living by singing/rapping about negative and downright nasty things, calling them out as being “wicked” and “ridiculous” (and that’s a word I like to use a lot anyway - it’s just fun to say!). Since the song is heavily influenced by reggae, there are a lot of phrases like “why do dem” and references to “Jah” and so forth (for the record, the word “Jah”, commonly known as the Rastafarian word for God, is actually derived from the Hebrew “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”, so don’t go off on a pointless crusade, okay?). The song also has its share of hip-hop cliches, but it puts a clever twist on them (such as God saying “You the man, and that’s word to your momma”). This may not be everybody’s cup of tea - some may find Eek to be downright annoying with his ragamuffin ranting, but it’s my favorite track on the album.

Messenjah
True king descendant, master to the apprentice
Please to release and reveal in me His presnece…
Another harder song kicks in, sticking closer to the territory of “Set It Off” by consisting almost entirely of rapping and screaming. It may be the heaviest track so far on the record, a more hardcore interpretation of the Gospel of Mark’s call to “prepare the way of the Lord”. Still, it’s a bold and uplifting anthem, boldly proclaiming, “I am not ashamed of the Most High, even if I die tonight!” Pretty bold words. Obviously no one’s out to kill P.O.D. (as far as I know), but they’re definitely not afraid to risk the death of their career in either music industry by challenging both sides. When you’re good, you can get away with stuff like that. The song ends off with classic rock ending number 643 (or something like that) - a rolling drum cadence and a series of almost punk-like screams that comes grinding to a halt.

Guitarras de Amor
Another softer “intermission” tune - this time we are briefly taken south of the border and wooed by Spanish guitars, as a backmasked male voice speaks in the background. They used backmasking on the last album to recite John 3:16 in the middle of their (frankly, rather wretched) cover of U2’s “Bullet the Blue Sky”, and I’d be interested to find out what’s being said here. Likely another Bible verse. It would have been interesting to see this develop into a full song, but hey, we haven’t hit a bad track yet and we’re over halfway through, so no complaints.

Anything Right
In your mind, I‘m just blind, you‘re right all of the time
If I think for myself, I guess I‘m way out of line
I‘m not who you are, I‘m so sorry…
This midterm rocker is where the record begins to falter a little bit, even though the lyrics on this one are some of the most poignant ones the band has written. The lead singer from another Christian hard rock band, Blindside (his name is actually Christian) adds some guest screams and vocals on this one, as if Sonny wasn’t enough (sorry, I appreciate P.O.D.‘s attempt to draw attention to one of their favorite bands, but I don’t think the contribution is helpful). Sonny sings in a lower tone during the verses - his voice is quite similar to what it sounds like when gangsta rappers sing on their albums - he can definitely carry a tune, but he keeps enough of that ghetto slur to make sure it’s not too pretty. The song is written from the point of view of a teenager who is constantly being told by authority figures that he is wrong and needs to clean up his act, and I think it serves as a reminder to adults more than anything (if any are listening?), to really get to know and understand the younger crowd instead of judging them and writing them off as immature. I have to say, the pretty strings in between verses are rather odd, and I could do without the escalating screams and the panting that ends off the song.

Ghetto
We don‘t always see things the same
We should agree to disagree
If we meet at love, we can work it out…
Anotrher mid-tempo song - this one is softer, only reverting back to Sonny’s harsh screaming in the middle. For the most part, it’s unremarkable, though its message is extremely important in a world where people of different races and religions are experiencing a lot of tension - “I believe that this world believes in love”. The basic premise here is that the world is just as much of a ghetto as the San Diego slum that the band came from - and it’s up to us all to clean it up and stop fighting each other.

Masterpiece Conspiracy
Where were you when we started this thing?
You weren‘t around, this ain‘t yours to claim
You‘ll never take what‘s been given to us
Wipe that smile off your face and that look of disgust…
This one kicks the tempo back up with more of a traditional heavy metal feel at the beginning (at least, until Sonny starts rapping). The words seem to carry an X-Files sort of suspicion to them, which plays against the title quite well, but then it kind of degenerates into that “God is on our side and we’re gonna silence the enemies” stuff that was done with a bit more tact in “Set It Off” and “Ridiculous”. The chorus is just Sonny screaming the title over and over - the most interesting part of the song is the bridge, where Sonny spits out, “Liar, backstabber, deceiver, betrayer” over and over, which is actually quite therapeutic for me given a personal situation I’m dealing with right now (but enough of that). Unfortunately, that falls victim to P.O.D.’s old style, where they take a slow, grinding groove and slow it down even more rather abruptly, leading to a very abrupt ending.

Without Jah, Nothin’
Sheesh - it’s not even worth quoting the lyrics to this one. The songs before this one have ranged from mediocre to decent, but this one just plain stinks. It kicks in immediately with Sonny manically counting off the time as the band launches into a driving punk tempo - but it’s that brand of purposefully sloppy punk that I can’t stand. H.R., lead vocalist of the group Bad Brains, makes an appearance here, and I guess his vocals are an acquired taste, but don’t ask me, ‘cause I haven’t acquired them. What I can make out of the lyrics is pretty much this: “Without Jah, nothing’, with Jah, everything.” Poetic, huh? Sonny thinks he’s Joey Ramone or something, and H.R. is purposefully off key - then, the song has the audacity to slow down into a lazy reggae groove and never pick up again. In all fairness, I’ve never actually heard the group Bad Brains, and I know P.O.D. really likes them, and wanted to open their listeners up to a different styyle. But it sounds like another experiment gone horribly awry. Thankfully, it’s over before too long with one last lackadaisical “Oh, well” from Sonny.

Thinking About Forever
Sometimes, I forget to remember you
It‘s easy to lock away the pain, don‘t want to relive it through…
Hold your breath - here, P.O.D. thankfully switches gears for a truly beautiful song. Built upon an acoustic guitar, an urban beat, and a slightly electronic underpinning, this may just be the first true ballad in the P.O.D. catalog. It is the other song on the record devoted to Sonny’s late mother - here, he sends up a very personal message to her, telling her how his life has grown and changed due to the things she taught him, and how he longs to pass that wisdom on to his own baby girl. More hardcore fans are definitely going to be thrown off by the group’s harmonies, the rich acoustics, and sentimentals lines like “If you can hear me, send a butterfly or two”. It’s not an uncommon thing, actually - some of us have heard the most hardened gangasta rappers give shout outs to their mothers - there’s a real bond there when someone manages to raise you (sometimes completely on her own) in a tough neighborhood with constant temptations threatening to lead you astray. P.O.D. may not normally be a band that your mother would take a liking to, but I’d wager that this one could be a big hit with moms and kids alike - on both mainstream and Christian radio if the cards were played right - come this next May. It’s a step up in class from what Will Smith did with “Just the Two of Us”.

Portrait
You‘re not who they say You are
They made You the enemy…
Of course, P.O.D. has to close out with another raging rocker. This one is more old-style P.O.D., shifting between a jack hammering verse and a slow, brooding chorus, protesting the harsh picture that modern culture has painted of Jesus Christ, writing Him off as a fake or blaming Him for the actions of his followers. You’ll probably have to read the lyric sheet to get anything out of the verses, but Sonny does make some powerful statements, punctuated by the chorus, which is a bit of an awkward shift in mood from the rest of the song, but is still quite powerful: “Some people call You Father/Maybe You can set me free/These people hate each other/But You’ve always been there for me.” The verses are pounded out in a lightning-fast 5/4 rhythm, which takes talent to maintain. It’s much tighter than most of the filler material on Southtown and its extreme nature provides a good bookend to the album. It won’t appeal to everyone who liked the more straight-ahead rocking grooves of most of the album, but it’s a good track in its own weird way.

I’m just amazed at how tight P.O.D. has become as a band - exposure to a mass audience (ranging from people who attend the Ozzfest to people who buy the notorious WoW CD’s) has really broadened their musical horizons and sharpened their lyrical skills without compromising the things they love. This album was a bold step into new territory, and I’m pleased at how well most of it worked out. Sonny proves he can sing with the best of them (as do the other guys), Marcos shows us a more delicate touch on some songs while shredding tons of energy on the others, Traa slaps out some funky bass (an often under appreciated element in most rock bands, but very noticeable on many of these songs), and Wuv hammers out a solid beat underneath it all. The hope and joy in most of these songs - even the darkest ones - is grounded in the tough trials that these guys have lived through, and it definitely sounds a lot more real than four suburban guys from Nashville likely would playing the exact same stuff.

If you enjoy this album as much as I do, do a few things for the band’s sake: Tell people who have heard the band not to judge P.O.D. on the basis of their older material. Sure, some people liked to thrash about regardless of any tune or constant rhythm, but there has been so much growth here, and I think this CD really needs to be heard by a massive audience. Secondly, take a lesson from the boys, and develop that skill of speaking the truth in love. People like these guys who are attempting to do that can radically change the way Christians are viewed in a world that has been so often hurt by religion. And finally, wrap your big fat tattooed arms around your mother and tell her you love her for Sonny’s sake, okay?

TRACK REVIEW SUMMARY
Excellent: Boom, Ridiculous, Youth of the Nation, Satellite, Thinking About Forever, Alive
Good: Set It Off, Messenjah, Anything Right
Decent: Celestial, Guitarras de Amor, Masterpiece Conspiracy, Portrait
Weak: Ghetto
Skippable: Without Jah Nothin'

Band Members:
Sonny: Lead vocals
Marcos: Guitars, vocals
Traa: Bass, vocals
Wuv: Drums, vocals

Website: http://www.payableondeath.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving