ALBUM REVIEW: Veritas – P.O.D.
There has never been a better time for a legacy nu-metal act to take a shot at the big leagues again. Fans of the genre who came of age during its heyday over 20 years ago have transformed it from metal’s problem child into something worthy of respect, with bands like LIMP BIZKIT receiving their flowers long after releasing their most prolific work. It was a genre of massive singles rather than artistically profound albums, and P.O.D. are high up in playlists of the era’s biggest bangers. If nu-metal had a greatest hits, Alive and Youth Of The Nation sit alongside the likes of Last Resort and Chop Suey!.
While not marquee main eventers like some bands from back then have gone on to become, most notably SLIPKNOT, P.O.D. do command respectable numbers on Spotify. Over 3.4 million monthly listeners is nothing to be sniffed at, even if, disappointingly, Veritas is. The band sound the opposite of emboldened by the revival of a sound they helped to define, announcing their return to the fold in the safest and stalest manner.
On the sub-LINKIN PARK I Got That, Sonny Sandoval says “We got that underground, original, nothing to prove”, yet the band claim to identify as perpetual underdogs. It would be good to hear the fighting spirit of the latter, some bite to accompany some of the chunky breakdowns across the record, but the autopilot notion of ‘nothing to prove’ rings true. When on the same song Sandoval says “I got that all natural, hypnotic, quality flow”, it only draws attention to how he does not. On Afraid To Die, his natural flow sounds as if it has never met the accompanying riff, haphazardly throwing words at a beat in the hopes some land in its vicinity. Few do. Then it’s on to a wish.com HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD chorus, rinse and repeat.
There’s nothing great here, but it’s not all bad. This Is My Life wouldn’t be out of place on a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game, Lay Me Down (Roo’s Song) is a nu-metal ballad to clench your fists to on nightclub dancefloors, and Lies We Tell Ourselves shakes things up with an alt grunge slacker vibe. It sounds how a nu-metal record ought to in 2024, all thick distortion with vocals high in the mix, crisp and accessible.
That accessibility goes a little too far on single I Won’t Bow Down which is little more than radio rock muzak, a formula they revert to too often. The “Let it rock, til you drop” refrain on opener DROP is utterly mindless in the worst way, bland to the point of nothingness. Not even LAMB OF GOD’s Randy Blythe adds spice to this vanilla cut. When Sandoval spits about “Suckaz playing themselves to have mass appeal” it makes Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton sound like gangsta rap.
What P.O.D. have achieved across 11 albums cannot be denied, but Veritas finds them operating on the level of a token metal entry at the Eurovision song contest, and not a particularly good one. When record number 12 rolls around, they might consider having something to prove.
Rating: 3/10
Veritas is out now via Mascot Records.
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