Artist: Dope
Album: American Apathy
Genre: Hard Rock / Metal / Industrial
Sounds like: Old school Filter, maybe some Stabbing Westward, Static X, and some Marilyn Manson (the newer, fast paced, "Golden Age of Grotesque" type stuff)
Dope is:
Edsel Dope "Vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboard & samples, programming
Racci Shay " Drums
Brix " Bass, guitar, keys
Virus " Guitar, bass, backing vocals, loops & samples
Track List:
1.I"m Back
2.Survive
3.No Way Out
4.Always
5.Bastard
6.Sex Machine
7.Four More Years
8.Revolution
9.Let"s F*ck
10.F*ck The World
11.I Wish I was the President
12.Dream
13.The Life
14.People are People
15.Bitch (alternate version)
16.F*ck Tha Police (2005 Studio Version)
17.Burn (featuring the Detroit Hate Choir)
American Apathy is the newest addition to Dope"s sonic arsenal. If you are a Dope fan and already own this album don"t waste your time reading this because you already know how good it is. For decades we have listened to music our parents have warned us about. Music that contains political opinions and/or a violent feel or content. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, I can honestly say that Dope is definitely one of those bands. Dope delivers their message straight up raw, without any sort of candy coating or censorship. This album contains direct blows to the current presidential party by using spliced clips from some of Bush"s speeches. They also break out of all the political banter, with some classic Dope sounding tunes laced with partying, women, and sex.
There is not a single note of clean guitar on American Apathy, but I can honestly say I barely noticed and didn"t actually miss it. The overall tone from song to song stays very constant, but still each tune still stands by itself. Tempo changes and vocal effect fluctuations fuel the aggression of each song for the most. Those aspects along with the lyrics are what clearly define each song as its own.
The words of Dope are not as clean cut in a dead set direction as one might suspect. The main weight of American Apathy may be politics, but the main target of those particular songs could easily be used on different events and/or targets. "Four More Years" is actually the only direct, biased attack on the whole album. It isn"t even a song. It"s just a clever and high quality audio splice of at least one of President Bush"s speeches. "People Are People" is the song that actually made me pause for a second and go "hmmm". I never thought of it that way before." It"s a song about how easily and quickly people hate other people even if they"ve never met or even know who that person might be. Track 11 is "I Wish I was the President". I thought it was a rather amusing song about how Edsel would act and what he would do if he actually were the president. To sum up and clean up what is discussed in the song - picture a dreadlocked president living the "rock star lifestyle" with cars, drugs, and women.
This isn"t hate music it"s "fight music". As a whole, I would describe this album as "politically charged, fast paced, industrial-metal, sprinkled with visions of sex, drugs, and violence". American Apathy is definitely a step in the right direction for Dope.
