(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
For several years, Richard Patrick recorded music at home in Cleveland, playing all the instruments himself. Then he met Bryan Liesegang, a Philosophy graduate from Chicago and an amateur experimenter following in the footsteps of Robert Moog. Together, in 1993, they formed Filter, who soon released Short Bus (Reprise, 1994), featuring yet another hybrid of heavy metal and industrial music. Their hellish rides are above average for the genre. While the twisted genius of Nine Inch Nails often indulges in experimental tracks, these Filter dont waste time: the album is a concentrated blast of extremely violent music, with only two pauses just to give the speakers a rest. Pros and cons: some will say it gets repetitive over time because they always play the same song; others will say they are less scattered, and therefore more effective, than their peers.
The formula of the single Hey Man Nice Shot is a textbook example of young industrial metal: it starts quietly, with a beatbox marking a medium tempo, while the sinister rumble of electronics plays in the background; the lyrics barely allow a hint of something unsettling before the distorted guitar riff bursts in and the chorus is screamed frantically. Dose is even more ferocious, cutting straight to the chase: two guitars continuously unleash cyclopean hard rock blasts while Patrick rants as if under excruciating anesthesia. With less frenzy but much more grandeur comes the grunge tribute, with the dark momentum of White Like That. Gerbil pretends to be just as violent but hides the catchiest melody on the album, a lullaby worthy of Dinosaur Jr. It's Over serves as the power ballad, yet is still screamed at the top of Patricks lungs over an electrified atmosphere.
As a vocalist, Patrick is a cross between Cobain (Nirvana) and Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), screaming the melodies in a terrified way, trying to condense all the despair and violence he is victim ofor complicit ininto a few seconds.
Patrick also wrote two songs for soundtracks that gained some notoriety: Jurassitol and Trip Like I Do. But the Filter project would remain dormant for years, perhaps partly due to Liesegangs departure.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Title of Record (Reprise, 1999) is Patrick's solo album. While the press
agonized, Patrick took his time to produce a carefully crafted work.
Unfortunately, the verdict is not positive.
The best songs evoke pre-Passion Peter Gabriel
(Welcome To The Fold and Take A Picture, the new hit)
and the rest swings
between generation anthems (The Best Things),
painful memories (Skinny, I'm Not The Only One) and
angry rants (Cancer) with little or no additions to the canon.
Patrick's vocal style is always impressive, but the music rarely offers his
voice much of a stage.
If the first album leveraged the brutal/barbaric sound of Nine Inch Nails and the
second album leveraged the mellow/sophisticated sound of Peter Gabriel,
The Amalgamut (Warner, 2002) swings between the two camps
(You Walk Away is the angry rant, Where Do We Go From Here is
the neurotic wail).
Anthems for the Damned (2008)
and
The Trouble with Angels (2010)
were diligent replicas of their sound.
