P.O.D. — The Warriors EP, Volume 2

7/10 The Warriors EP, Volume 2 comes at a strange time in P.O.D.’s career, and in an interesting time in mine. P.O.D. were now two years removed from 2003’s Payable on Death, which proved the band  could make post-Marcos Curiel music that didn’t suck…Marcos Curiel being the band’s (then) ex-guitarist. Of course, they hadn’t really

Rediscovering the Nintendo Gamecube

As far as inanimate objects go, there aren’t many things I love more than video games. I’ll never forget being woken up from a childhood nap early one afternoon by the bloops and bleeps of my father’s Atari 2600. I knew as soon as I saw him taking out the colorful bricks of Breakout that

P.O.D. — Payable on Death

8/10 As much as P.O.D. were able to lift up the nation after 9/11, they suffered from the effects of it like anyone else…and inadvertently furthered the “everything sucks now” cultural meme. In 2002, at the peak of their fame, they lost founding member, key songwriter, and chief soul-bringer, guitarist, Marcos Curiel. The reason for

P.O.D. — Satellite

10/10 WARNING: DISJOINTED, BLOATED, PARENTHETICAL-FILLED STREAM OF THOUGHTS AHEADP.O.D.’s The Fundamental Elements of Southtown expanded my mind, and taught me to expect diversity in my heavy music. While the nu-metal bands P.O.D. Were unfairly lumped in with were content just trying to be a heavier, less cerebral version of Nirvana, P.O.D. evinced a love for

P.O.D. — The Fundamental Elements of Southtown

10/10 The introduction of my “cool cousin” Jessica to these reviews last month was very deliberate. Jessica plays a very important part in this P.O.D. narrative.When I was a senior in high school, Jessica moved to Texas for a little while, and I lost my pipeline to coolness. Thankfully, she came back to visit for

Beginning Next Week: A Study on the Much-Misunderstood P.O.D.

Yes, THAT P.O.D. The not nu-metal band completely composed of minorities who grew up in an impoverished, crime-ridden area of San Diego, fronted by a reformed drug-dealer, who somehow got lumped in with a genre mainly associated with misogynist, white, upper middle class frat-boys.The band who drew their roots from punk, metal, and reggae, but

Plumb — candycoatedwaterdrops

9/10 It’s a road trip to Florida in the summer of 1999, and my cousin Adrian hands me a CD. As you can see, my cousins and I took a lot of road trips. “Dude, the first song on this new Plumb CD sounds like it could be the theme song from a James Bond

A Plea for Purging — The Life and Death Of…

8/10 In the winter of 2010, I lost my mother to the barrel of her loaded gunTwo weeks later my forgotten dad lost the battle of his lifelong suicidal run He was dead to me years agoBut losing her was an eternal blowI’ve spoke in the past of the brokenBut now I really know If

A Plea for Purging — The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

9/10 Not since golden-age Zao has a “Christian” metal band held the Christian church as accountable as a Plea for Purging do on their bludgeoning 2010 release, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.I admittedly grew up in a prosperity theology-centered cult, so I have quite an intimate knowledge of the institutions called out here–and honestly,