State Of Shock - Guilty By Association

Between 2002 and 2004 I tried to get into a lot of the newer bands coming out. Some of them I liked, like Nickelback, Death From Above 1979, and even Puddle of Mudd to some extent. One of the bands I actually bought an album from was Canadian group State Of Shock.

My first introduction to them was the video for I Wish I Never Met You, followed by If I could. At that point I picked up their first CD Guilty By Association, just to see how good it really was.

The album opens with Sound Track Of Our Lives. It's pretty typical for the Post Grunge/ Nu Metal era rock. There's a lot of anger and frustration, but it's toned back in the chorus instead of getting even heavier. There's a lot of riff chugging and big open chords mixed around as well. However, I normally just skip this one, because I find it boring.

The next track, Whatchya Gonna Do, it pretty much the same as the last song in sound. I can hear a lot of Korn and Limp Bizkit influence in this song. If those two bands were hitting prozac. In other words, it sounds angry, but not that angry. This is also normally a skipper for me.

One thing I will mention early on, is that the average song runs around 3:20, but many seem to feel longer.

The first song I don't skip is the first song I ever heard from the band. I Wish I Never Met You is one of the best break-up songs ever, it ranks right up there with Puddle Of Mudd's She Hates Me. "I wonder why i even try / (so tired of the fight) / Whats the point when we know / You'll never change / We'll never see eye to eye / I wish i never met you / let me go / it is over / i wish i never met you / now you know / it is over." This is the one song on the album that just was not long enough.

There is nothing I hate more on an album than when a really good fast upbeat song is followed by the album's wussiest ballad. If I Could is the album's big love song. It's okay if you like ballads from the turn of the millenium, because every single one, no matter which band, all sound like they stole their template from Def Leppard's early 90's catalog.

The only thing worse than a band following up a really strong, fast, rockin' song with a ballad, is when they follow that ballad up with a really heavy and thick whinefest. Song I Scream is so very Alice In Chains. It drones, drags, and if it were not for the vocals it would be easy to picture this song on Jar of Flies or Dirt, or even Black Give Way To Blue.

This Is Why is just a continuation of the last song. It's a little more aggressive and contains a tad more yelling, and less droning.

Living Unaware should have been the big ballad single. It's a bit heavy, but not anywhere near as much of a silly "for the chicks" song as If I Could. This is actually a pretty serious song. It's a bit cliche, but the first verse, pre-chorus and chorus set it all up. "Does anyone care that life's unfair / Does anyone else have nightmares? / Cause i'm sick of living in despair / I'm sick of living so unaware / Maybe the world would be a better place / If the heavens would only take us away / Maybe the world would be a better place / If the heavens would only take us away / If time would only go away / (if time would) / We could all be the same / We could all erase our mistakes / (we could) / and never have to face / disgrace again."

I have little to no use for Sh*t Talker (the astrix is how it appears on the album). It's an okay entrance theme for a wrestler at best. In fact I would hope that was the only reason they even recorded this song.

From there we move back to another ballad, Breathe Again. It's another prime example of Post Grunge, that can be very skipable if I'm not in the mood.

The problem with all these bands that came from the Post Grunge era is that many of them have too many influences that I didn't care for back in the 90's. Which is why I went more Industrial and Goth, instead of Grunge, in those days.

So Many Times and So What help fill the end of the album. It's pretty much more of the same. Sure the songs differ, but not enough to keep me interested. In fact,I almost always skip these ones, because they were buried for a reason.

Before I move on to the last song I would just like to quickly recap that the only songs on this album I actually suggest for listening pleasure are Wish I Never Met You, Living Unaware and Rollin'.

Rollin' finishes off the album with one last balladesque song. However, this one is not so much whining about loss of love or any of that girly stuff. This one is more of Blues styled lyrics, "How do you tell someone / so close to you / your holding me back / from I'm meant to do / the more you grow apart / a piece of you knows / if you try to stop me,i'll break your heart (i'll break your heart) / i've seen the places others have gone / its time for me to move on / i've seen the places others have gone / its time for me to move on / Lifes A Rough Road If You Want To Roll With Me / If You Want To Roll With Me / Lifes A Rough Road If You Want To Roll With Me / If You Want To Take A Ride". Had it not been for this song finishing up the album, I would probably never listen beyond Breathe Again (track 9). However, I really like this song.

After listening to the album and having it for close to a decade I have less appreciation for it than I did when I first got it. That isn't to say that it doesn't still find it's way into my CD player from time to time, but it's more likely Wish I Never Met You, Living Unaware and Rollin' are just on my Mp3 player.

That's not to say that this is not a decent album, it's just not decent enough for me. Maybe if I hadn't been a very active listener of music in the 1990's this album would appeal to me more. However, that's not the case and instead it sounds like I'm listening to an album that I normally wouldn't have bothered with back in the day, because grunge was the anti-Metal.

6/10 - content

7/10 - production

5/10 - personal bias