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The first time I heard GODHEAD: 2000 Years of Human Error, I really didn't care for it. I considered this album, for the most part, to be little more than a generic radio-friendly-industrial album. MARILYN MANSON had done this before, as had STABBING WESTWARD, and of course NINE INCH NAILS before both of them. What new angle on the sub-genre did this band GODHEAD - no matter their ultra-cool sacrilegious name - have to offer? None at all, I initially thought. It wasn't that I hated 2000 Years of Human Error by any means, but I heard nothing in GODHEAD to make me consider them more than another pale face in a sea of generic goth/industrial bands with loud guitars, expensive keyboards, fancy drum machines, and an abundance of suicidal angst. I didn't plan on giving 2000 Years of Human Error more than a perfunctory listen or two before consigning it to my CD rack, most likely the side facing the wall, the rack filled with CDs I rarely listen to, if ever. It was simply . . . more of the same. But slowly, I began to come around. Before long I couldn't get the songs on 2000 Years of Human Error out of my head. I didn't want to like the album. I found the singer especially a tad annoying, with his deep voice sounding like something that might better compliment some run-of-the-mill alterna-Top 40 band, than this genre that I love - despite its many detractors: "Bullshit! That's not real industrial! Give me Skinny Puppy or Throbbing Gristle any day over MTV fluff like Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills!" But I couldn't help myself. By the third or fourth time I listened to the album, I was hooked. Whether I liked it or not, I was a GODHEAD fan. Within a matter of weeks, in fact, I began to scope out the rest of the band's catalogue, which includes a rare self-titled debut, a step-above-mediocre disc called Nothingness, and an album that paved the way for the breakthrough album that is 2000 Years of Human Error called Power Tool Stigmata. Regarding the music on 2000 Years of Human Error; imagine a cross between MARILYN MANSON (if Manson wasn't quite so down on the world) - Mr. Manson contributes guest vocals, in fact, to Track #6 on 2000 Years of Human Error, "Break You Down," but in my opinion it's one of the weakest songs on the album - and STABBING WESTWARD (if 'Westward were slightly less poppy and sang about topics other than relationships gone bad and dirty women breaking your heart so now you have to cry about it in every song). Add a touch of Trent Reznor singing basso and voila . . . you've got GODHEAD. The strongest
tracks on the album are: "I Sell Society;" for some odd reason the lyrics in this one always conjure up mental pictures for me of an evil charlatan hawking his demonic wares to unsuspecting customers, ultimately for the price of their souls. "Sinking;"
an electronica-driven tune that always makes me wanna do that weird robot
dance from back when break-dancing was popular - in fact, I had to stop
for a minute or two in the middle of this sentence to perform that very
dance for an invisible audience. Yes, that "Eleanor Rigby." GODHEAD have recorded a fantastic cover of the Beatles symphony-driven classic on 2000 Years of Human Error, transforming the inherent - albeit subtle - eeriness of the original tune into something danceable yet still very dark and somewhat depressing. "Eleanor Rigby," in fact, just might be the best song on the album. If you are a fan of such guitar-driven "industrial rock" bands as MARILYN MANSON, STABBING WESTWARD, GRAVITY KILLS, NINE INCH NAILS, HATE DEPT., and even - to a lesser extent - the "horror hard rock" of such acts as ALICE COOPER, DANZIG, and W.A.S.P., you should most certainly check out 2000 Years of Human Error. I do not think you would be disappointed. It'll grow on you. Just give it more than a single listen. Myself, I have seen the Error of my ways . . . and so I give this album 4 perplexed skulls.
This review copyright 2002 E.C.McMullen Jr. |
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