Punknews.org

|
Sign In | create an account

Opiate for the Masses

The Spore (2005)
Warcon Entertainment

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Anchors
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on September 27th 2005

There's a reason I don't listen to the radio anymore. There's a reason I go out and buy albums, I read reviews, and I constantly seek out new things to listen to. That reason is the complete lack of anything decent whatsoever to listen to on the radio. It's a format so devoid and bankrupt of creativity that it's impossible to find even one single redeeming value.

I really am not quite sure which alternative radio rock bands that Opiate for the Masses should be sandwiched in between. There's some Nickelback, there's some Disturbed, and maybe even a bit of Rob Zombie thrown in for good, well, for measure. Trying to pick out elements in this album to talk about is just like trying to pick one blade of grass in your yard that's better than the rest. It's a fruitless and futile struggle. This is boring, bland, and entirely too long of an effort for the kind of music being presented. "Drown" is representative of pretty much the entire album, and there's little to no style variation from this song anywhere else on the album. Slow verses with repetitive drum beats, then the guitars are tuned down for the chorus as the volume picks up just a little bit, just enough to differentiate between those choruses. The guitar work is just one, long, sludgy and uneventful bore-fest. The band barely has any sense of rhythm and an even lesser sense of melody. They're coherent musicians, but the music they throw together is as uninspired as anything else I can ever remember hearing. The vocals are monotone through most of the duration, picking up a little bit of scruff here and there to at least somewhat change the inflection, but too little too late.

The Spore is a boring, monotonous trip into a zone I don't ever want to return to. I had a hard time even listening to the whole thing, not only because of the complete lack of thought or attention put into it, but because my roommates threatened to piss on me when I slept tonight if I kept playing this.

Login to rate this album

Please login or register to post comments.

What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Anonymous (February 6, 2006)

Opiate for the masses cannot be fully appreciated until seen in person live! They usually rock the house more than the headliner they are opening for!

localh (September 30, 2005)

opium is cool these guys are not cool

notfeelingcreative (September 30, 2005)

"apparently evil al has terrible taste in music. who knew? (not sarcasm, i swear)"

Other than sepultura I've never seen Ministry with a good opening act!

Anonymous (September 29, 2005)

these fuckers opened for fucking ministry.

and al jourgenson told me in an interview that they were good.

apparently evil al has terrible taste in music. who knew? (not sarcasm, i swear)

Anonymous (September 28, 2005)

rob zombie rules

Anonymous (September 27, 2005)

Opiate for the masses is the opiate for the masses.

Because I care...

etwiels88 (September 27, 2005)

Dreadlocks all gay.

Anonymous (September 27, 2005)

i can't believe this record even got reviewed here, this band fucking sucks; plain & simple.

Anonymous (September 27, 2005)

rob zombie makes me wanna barf. he plays bad music and dances like a creep. rob zombie has 37 hildren all with some deformity because he drank the spetic water behind the home he grew up in.

sickboi (September 27, 2005)

Don't talk shit on Rob Zombie...

Anonymous (September 27, 2005)

so bad it's not even funny

AlmostPunkEnough (September 27, 2005)

i saw some video by these dudes on Fuse. i was floored by how awful it was. if that was the single, i'd hate to hear the rest of this.

notfeelingcreative (September 27, 2005)

If your band's name alludes to Karl Marx, you shouldn't play this type of garbage.

stevejonestherealbones (September 27, 2005)

so would you say this release allowed warcon to "make itself synonymous with the punk/metal/post-hardcore lifestyle."

and did it come with a dvd that maintained Warcon's "credibility with its core audience by declining advertising from companies whose products and services do not fit the lifestyle."

did it?

- jones the bones

- stevejones8770@yahoo.com

TheOneTrueBill (September 27, 2005)

Nice link.

A few years ago a friend of mine edited together a loop of that dolphin noise (wah ah ah ah!) from that Disturbed song and burned it to a CD. It was fucking hilarious to hear that thing looped for a minute and a half and to blare it at stoplights and look for reactions.