Review Summary: Native American industrial punk metal.
Freedom Is a State of Mind is a lot more rounded lyrically and musically than some of the vainer politically-themed band, and express their viewpoint well. Here, politics is not an "image" - there's something actually being said here, and the complaints are a lot more detailed than "the government sucks". CA outright state that the tax system is wrong and steals from the people, and tell big government to "Stay the *** out of my mind and my being".
Regarding the police, CA believes that the fascism of the government is what's really at fault for the flaws of their civil servants ("I Don't Fault The Police"). CA slams the war on drugs for criminalizing freedom and Republicans and Democrats for sounding exactly the same, calls the Bible out as a lie, the voting system as flawed, and the justice system a lie.
The band's Cherokee lineage is also explored, and CA call out the genocide of this land's original inhabitants ("I see blood on the hands of the 'master race'"). Noting Andrew Jackson's face appears on the $20 bill, CA ask how the Jews would feel if it instead featured Adolf Hitler. The band also slams the homophobic Fred Phelps-variety "Christians" on "Jesus Christ Homosexual".
For the musical side, they do a good job of combing through strains of industrial, punk, metal, rock and rap. That being said, this
is not a hip hop album. There's more industrial than anything, with metal and punk also bearing heavily on the material, and
very little rap ("Drug Dealing God" features
Kottonmouth Kings, and says that marijuana should not be illegal because it was put on the planet by God).
This album has something that a lot of mainstream "political" albums don't, in that the band actually says something, rather than shouting out mindless rhetoric.
Corporate Avenger is not
Rage Against the Machine: less raging, more informed statement. These guys are actually intelligent.
