Core

Core

Stone Temple Pilots

Atlantic Records, 1992

REVIEW BY: Alfredo Narvaez

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/25/2000

It's somewhat difficult to fully explore Core without looking at the history that has followed. Backin 1992, the debut of this SoCal quartet was met with criticalacclaim and success. Thanks to their two hits, "Plush" and "Creep,"the production efforts of Brendan O'Brian and solid word-of-mouth,the Pilots were thrust into the echelon of alternative's new stars-- right alonside Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice InChains. The future seemed bright for vocalist Scott Weiland,bassist Robert DeLeo, guitarist Dean DeLeo and drummer EricKretz.

As we all know, things didn't pan out as fully as one may havehoped. Due to Scott Weiland's recurring drug abuse and drug-relatedproblems, the band has been forced to stop, start and re-startthroughout the 90s. They even tried a new vocalist and changedtheir name to Talk Show, but that went as well as Scott Weiland'ssolo effort. Currently, they're back together and promoting theirlatest effort, No. 4. Still one cannot deny their abilities nor thestrength of their debut.

The album kicks off with the hard, yet catchy, "Dead &Bloated." It's a proper intro to the album, mixing in the hardrhythm set by Kretz and Robert DeLeo with the guitar licks of DeanDeLeo and, on top of everything, the vocal delivery of Weiland.From here you have the controversial hit, "Sex Type Thing." A verystrong song with a driving rhythm, it speaks of the mind of arapist - but not celebrating it, as many detractors would have youbelieve.

The Pilots carefully construct some of the best socialcommentary since early U2. Listen to songs like "Wicked Garden,""Naked Sunday" and "Wet My Bed." "Naked Sunday" speaks of how Godis used for the creation of war, while "Wicked Garden" employsimagery from the classic short story "The Secret Garden" to speakof depression and breaking out of it. Granted, it's not on thelevel Rage Against the Machine plow through, but it'ssomething.