(hed) pe - Back 2 Base X Review
by Dan Upton
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I'm not going to lie, after forcing myself through the first listen of this disc, I said, "Well, that was pretty terrible." As the CD had been playing, other thoughts going through my mind were things like, "Who thought this was a good idea?" or "Why are these guys still around?" The last I heard of them was 2000's Broke, with the big single "Bartender"--you know, back when rap-metal was arguably "cool." Somehow they've survived 6 years and have served up another disc mixing up hip hop, punk, and metal influences. The problem is that Back 2 Base X fails to showcase them exercising any of their influences very well. Musically, the disc is nothing special, with mostly uninventive or rehashed riffs. Songs like the opener "Listen" or "Daze or War" have chill grooves during the verses, but even those are ruined by the ridiculous lyrics so common across the disc. The delivery is pretty bad in and of itself anyway, the only interesting parts being the rap deliveries with rhythm lifted straight from Eminem, but even good delivery couldn't save this. There's plenty of ego posturing, a few poorly written "love songs" (that's my only guess as to their intent), and my favorite contender for WTF? line of the year: "She's not your girl she's mine/Geometric so sublime!" Seriously. There are one or two songs that are decent enough to warrant multiple spins, like the (surprisingly angry) "we're going to die anyway so enjoy it" anthem "Let's Ride," but the rest of the material ranges from stupid at best to horrendous at worst. After a few spins I could tolerate the full disc, despite all its shortcomings, but realistically the one or two decent songs are not at all worth the price of admission for a whole CD. I suppose if you're a fan of (hed) pe you'll want this in your collection, but there's really nothing here to make this disc worthwhile to anybody else.
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(hed) pe - Back 2 Base X Label:Suburban Noize
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