Bastard Complex Arkansas

Bastard Complex

Spite

Prosthetic / Metal Blade Records, 1999

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/02/2000

With the rise in popularity of any particular genre of music,there are bound to be scores of groups who flood the scene and tryto create some noise for themselves. For lack of a betterdescription, I'd classify groups like Limp Bizkit (whose albums Ihave, in an, aah, alternative format, waiting for review) as "angerrock" - that is, groups who pour their fury into their music,creating an intense sound.

I'd like to say that Spite and their effort Bastard Complex are worthy of comparison to groups like LimpBizkit - but I can't. You see, it takes more than distorted powerchords and obscenity-laden screaming to make "anger rock," andSpite just don't seem to have grasped that yet.

For this four-piece group from North Carolina seems to know howto make a lot of noise and shout a lot - but so what? Anyone can dothat. Where Bastard Complex shuts down is that it all fails to cometogether; whether that's due to songwriting or the performances,I'm not quite sure yet.

There is one song where everything does seem to magically cometogether - "Calipornia". The lyrical content isn't the strongestthat I've ever heard, but the band - vocalist Chris Boone,guitarist Dan Young, bassist John Pratt and drummer Byron McDonald- are able to keep things interesting throughout the song. Too badthat they didn't reprise that magic for the bulk of Bastard Complex - but at least there is one bright lightthat shines in the darkness.