Рецензия Blistering на альбом «Steal This Album!»
When SOAD released their sophomore album Toxicity last year, few would have expected the album to do quite as well as it has. Granted, the band were on the verge of a breakthrough to the mainstream, but the success of Toxicity has broken boundaries even the most devoted fanatics of the band could have hoped for.
While Steal This Album! is not a legitimate follow up as such, there`s no denying that this album will be shipped out by the truckload. While recording «Toxicity», SOAD recorded some thirty plus tracks, leaving plenty left over for further development at a later date. Someone however, managed to get copies of some of the left over tracks onto the internet, making way for one sought after bootleg of unreleased tracks. Rather than allow fans to be ripped off with a poor sounding bootleg (Due to the tracks lack of completion and demo recording sound), SOAD set about cleaning the tracks up, and release their own version of the «bootleg».
The collection of sixteen tracks that makes up Steal This Album! is every bit the frantic, twisted, socially conscious, spiritual, humorous album you would expect from SOAD. The jumpy «Chic’n’Stu» opens the album with its ridiculous lyrics (Or are they serious?) and pogo like soundtrack. But there’s more to the band than mere joke songs. «Innervision», «A.D.D. (American Dream Disorder)», «F**k The System» and «Boom!» make some very valid comments on a variety of social issues. Another couple of moments of pure genius worth mentioning are tracks such as «I-E-A-I-A-I-O» (One strange song, but certainly catchy), «Pictures» and the acoustic simplicity of «Roulette» (Featuring solely Daron Malakian on guitar and vocalist Serj Tankian). As an added bonus, the album ends with «Streamline», a track that first appeared on the soundtrack to The Scorpion King.
As far as an album made entirely of left over tracks goes, this is one great album. Sure, it doesn`t quite measure up to Toxicity (But far superior than their self titled debut), but if you compare the two, then you`re missing the point entirely. At least it allows us something new to listen to until their new album surfaces next year sometime.
Justin Donnelly
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