2007. We're listening to XM radio and a song by some band I've never heard of comes on. It's batshit insane, jumping from one genre to the next seamlessly, singing about morbid beauty, death, and lost love. I need to hear more. It's called "What's The Worst Thing That Could Happen?" by some band named Polkadot Cadaver. "What an awesome name for a band," I think to myself. So I grab the album and I'm instantly floored. It's heavy, frenetic, catchy, weird, and just plain fun. It touches upon nearly every genre of music imaginable without being pretentious about it. It's beautiful. The lyrics are darkly poetic and I find myself singing along almost instantly. I am in love. It's everything I've ever wanted in a band. Musically, my life has never been the same since. So you can understand my seething anticipation while I waited 4 years for what was surely to be one of the greatest follow-up records ever released. Did it live up to such high expectations? Well...
In a word, No. I am seriously at odds with Sex Offender. It's, well, it's really not what I expected. It doesn't even sound like the same band that put out the masterpiece that was Purgatory Dance Party. The experimentation is gone. The genre hopping is gone. The macabre poetry is, for the most part, gone. It's all been replaced by a more mainstream style of hard rock/punk. One genre, one formula, repeated for 10 tracks. I actually find myself bored after about 3 or 4 songs. It's hard to even recall what the middle of the album sounds like in any specific sense. The songs are just forgettable, and it truly is depressing.
I will say the record starts off awesomely. "Opus Dei" is a somber opener reminiscent of "Haunted Holiday" that propels us right into my favorite song on the CD, "Seagrave". Dave Cullen's bass soars out of your speakers at an alarming rate, already inducing serious headbanging before the song fully kicks in. "Seagrave" is a punk rock anthem; driving, fast, heavy, and catchy as fuck. It's a great song that reminds me a bit of "Long Strange Trip To Paradise". Great opener.
From there the record just kind of meanders its way through to the end. Nothing really stands out, Todd Smith blurts out lyrics like "My God is better than your God, therefore I'm better than you!" over and over and I almost want to laugh. "Bloodsucker" is a song about the Twilight generation and society's recent obsession with vampires, and while I would've thought Todd could do something really cool with that idea, it just comes across as imbecilic and cheesy. I can't help but wonder what happened. Todd Smith is one of the greatest lyricists to ever grace the rock/metal world, in my opinion. He has a way of portraying darkness and violence in this beautiful and serene light, a way of weaving words and cliches together that stands out from anyone else's lyrical poetry. But something happened on Sex Offender. It's just not there. The lyrics border on infantile and thoughtless more often than not and I can't help but be a little saddened by it all.
The record isn't a total failure, however. I truly think that if they had released this album under a different moniker that I would have enjoyed it a lot more. They set the bar so high with Purgatory that I think it was almost impossible to top. Whatever the reason, not all is lost. Despite the hilarious (not really in a good way) lyrics, "Cake and Eat it Too" is a pretty rockin' jam, and "Mongaloid" tears shit apart. But the rest of the album just seems like filler to me, like they didn't put nearly as much time and effort into this record as they have in the past with Dog Fashion Disco and Purgatory. It's disappointing but at the same time, at least Todd and the gang are still making music (though Knives Out is just abhorrent). I only hope that Sex Offender was a small misstep and the next record will put them right back on track.
4.5/10
Track Listing:
1. Opus Dei
2. Seagrave
3. Bloodsucker
4. Starlight Requiem
5. Stronger Than Weak
6. Slaughterhouse Striptease
7. Sex Offender
8. Cake and Eat it Too
9. Mongaloid
10. Forever and a Day
Favorite Song: Seagrave
No comments:
Post a Comment