FILTER
TITLE OF THE RECORD
ALBUM REPRISE RELEASE: AUGUST 27, 1999 REVIEW: OCTOBER 14, 1999


Listening to the opening tracks on Filter's second album, "Title of Record", you vaguely sense that front man Richard Patrick once was a member of Nine Inch Nails. The sharp and stinging guitars of "Captain Bligh" almost seem carbon-copied from Nine Inch Nails' "Burn" (from the soundtrack to Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers"). But beyond this similarity nothing even comes close to Trent Reznor's ingenuity.
But fortunately, Filter's intentions aren't to become another Nine Inch Nails. Instead they focus on a more conventional form of metal, that many Americans for some reason persist in calling industrial. And in doing so they manage pretty well. Beacuse their music have, since the not very dynamic debut album "Short Bus", become more straightforward, surprisingly melodic and sometimes even catchy.
This is most obvious on tracks like "The Best Things" (which could easily have been produced by percussion-specialist Keith Le Blanc), "Cancer" and the Killing Joke-influenced "Skinny". "Take a Picture" reveals a more acoustic side of Filter and also serves as a welcome break in the otherwise massive wall of electric guitars. But the sentimental "Miss Blue" is nothing but pompous thrash and truly rotten. "Title of Record" is a rather likeable, but certainly not revolutionary, album. But also a vital element on the otherwise so predictable Amrican metal/hardcore-scene.

ERIK ALMGREN