Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Fashion, like conscious rebellion, goes around in Circles, what is popular and considered absolute authority one day, is rebutted and rebuked until a new generation comes along and finds their sympathies firmly entrenched with an older thought, old clothes, new perspective.
What is fashionable today somehow becomes a renaissance figure tomorrow, the resurgence in popularity that comes along is to be expected, but not always one that surfaces against the tide of expectation and delivery. It takes a genuine thought of speaking out between the old and new and ploughing a path less visited in which to grab the attention of those you wish to have by your side for the battle ahead.
For P.O.D. that battle was started in the 2015 release of The Awakening, and now finds itself creating a positive force in Circles, a culmination of the strength of character that saw the San Diego band stride out as one of the leading figures of the Nu-Metal scene, and in which now resides with honour as they confound the critic who always seems happiest when there is a box to put such bands in.
To be dynamic is a cornerstone of celebrating individuality and complex taste, not wanting to stand still and become a pastiche, only ever identifying with one particular stance or reflected mood, it is a dynamic that has resurfaced and is welcome with open heart as P.O.D. once more display their wares and gleaming passion. To be dynamic is go against the system, to be open-minded is a pleasure denied to so many, it is P.O.D.’s overwhelming desire to see many remove themselves from the cycle of one-track symbolism as possible.
Across songs such as the opening salvo of Rockin’ With The Best, Always Southern California, Panic Attack, Listening For The Silence, Domino and Home, P.O.D.’s attitude is alluring, lyrically courageous and open, heavy handed perhaps, but one that has flourish and dreams of persuading the listener of looking deeper for a kind of spiritual rebirth, of optimism and not accepting the agenda of those wish to keep you down amongst the forgotten and dispossessed.
Searching for answers is an easy occupation, it is looking for a truth that is the hard part of existence, a truth that comes with penetrating through the circles we have all weaved to make ourselves comfortable and accepted.
Ian D. Hall