Depending on which sociologist you talk to, an album as angrily violent as
Circles
either encourages hostility or decreases it -- the sociologists who contend that albums like
are beneficial would argue that by being cathartic and enabling listeners to deal with their demons, they ultimately promote a healthier state of mind. One thing's for sure:
Five Foot Thick
expresses a great deal of rage on this scorching debut album, which was originally self-released in 2000 and was reissued by
Eclipse
in 2004.
had been together for three years when they recorded
, and in their hometown of Spokane, WA, they had acquired a reputation for being headbangers with a major
hip-hop
obsession. Indeed,
's love of
is impossible to miss on this CD, which draws on
rap-metal
/
alternative metal
influences like
Rage Against the Machine
,
Limp Bizkit
Korn
, and
(hed) pe
. From lead vocalist
Bryan Dilling
's searing, mad-as-hell
raps
to
Matt Vansteenwyk
's sampling and
turntable
tricks,
is obviously the work of metalheads who had been raised on a combination of
rock
and
rap
. The material isn't groundbreaking by early-2000s standards; when
first came out in 2000,
was an extremely crowded field -- and
doesn't bring anything new or unusual to the style. But what
lacks in originality, it makes up for with pure, unmitigated passion; one can't accuse
Dilling
Vansteenwyk
, guitarist
George Silva
, bassist
Kris Demers
, or drummer
Silas McQuain
of sounding bored or uninspired on these blistering, confrontational performances.
falls short of exceptional, but it's a decent, if less than distinctive, footnote in the history of
. ~ Alex Henderson