 Eclecticism
has been a hallmark of Richard Patrick's career
in Filter, and it's administered with crushing
efficiency on The Trouble With Angels. Fans
weaned on the industrial outbursts and corrosive
beats of 1995's Short Bus and 1999's Title of
Record will be ecstatic to hear Patrick's
unmistakable scream and unflinching honesty
dominating the new album.
The prolific
multi-instrumentalist couches intensely personal
narratives in throwback industrial crushers
subject to multiple interpretations. On the
surface, leadoff single "The Inevitable Relapse"
details a shattered man succumbing to addiction,
but can be read as a study of love lost,
consumption or obsession, depending on your
perspective. Not to mention its isolated bass
line and thudding chord collapse both conjure and
modernize Filter's breakthrough smash, "Hey Man,
Nice Shot."
The guessing game continues
down Angels' track list. Is the hammering
"Absentee Father" about the man upstairs or an
unreliable blood relation? Does the fist-pumping
"No Love" take a nation addicted to warfare to
task, or is it a flagellation of the narrator's
own selfishness? Patrick prefers ambiguity, but
one thing is obvious: The Trouble With Angels
boasts his strongest, most aggressive songwriting
yet. "I've heard people say, 'Well, Richard is
mellowing with age...' and I was like, really?"
he exclaims with characteristic intensity.
"Mellow?! You know what? I've been looking for an
excuse to tear people's heads off again!"
"The first three songs [on the new record] are
for people who are super-pissed and want Short
Bus, and then everything after that, it's like
what we did with Title and [2002's] Amalgamut,"
Patrick continues. "There's one song that's maybe
as soft as [Title's crossover hit] 'Take a
Picture.' [But] I truly believe to this day my
audience should be as eclectic as I am. If they
can listen to Radiohead, then Pantera, they
should be able to listen to that within the same
band."
Lyrically and musically, Patrick's
taken it to the next level. Employing the talents
of collaborators new and old (drummer Mika Fineo
and original right-hand man Brian Liesegang, who
contributes sound design to the lush "Fades Like
a Photograph"), he unleashes serrated riffs that
recall old-school pit-starters like "Dose,"
"Under" and "Welcome to the Fold." Sometimes they
even have to be dragged into the world kicking
and screaming. "The solo in 'Absentee Father,'
it's like total disregard," Patrick laughs. "A
complete and utter fuck you-ism solo that doesn't
follow any rules whatsoever; completely
avant-garde, and it's the third song on the
record. It's the ultimate [example of]
At-this-moment-I-have-absolutely-no-regard-for-the-rules-of-music-whatsoever-and-it's-time-to-break-them-to-make-this-thing-say-what-I-need-to-say."
For an album of closed fists and open
ends, the title track can't possibly be
misinterpreted. Patrick confronts the
scientifically-challenged tenets of
fundamentalist proselytizers, assuring, "When you
take a better second look, miracles fade." On the
other side of the coin, he remains unafraid to
explore his own failings and make honest music
out of them. Take "Drug Boy": "When we were kids,
we'd trip out on whatever and just walk around
graveyards in Cleveland. Somebody would
inevitably stumble across a mausoleum, palm a
skull and take off with it. '12 hours of acid,
let's dig up a casket,'" he laughs, quoting the
lyrics.
Patrick is quick to give credit
to producer Bob Marlette for not only putting the
perfect corrosive "finishing touches" on the
record, but encouraging his brutally candid
lyrical approach. Ultimately, though, provocative
his Angels are, the frontman insists, "I don't
want to come off as if I've got an agenda on this
record - I really don't. I want to tell the truth
inside of me and relate it to the folks who are
going through these lives we lead."
 To work with the hands or brain, according to our requirements and our capacities, to do that which lies before us to do, is more honorable than rank and title.
- Albert Pike
myspace.com/mikafineo1 |
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 Originally from Queens, New York, FILTER bassist, Phil Buckman arrived in Los Angeles (by way of Baltimore, MD. and Boston, MA) as a teenager, and quickly made a name for himself in the L.A. music scene as the bassist for the dynamic TRIBAL SEX CULT. Upon the demise of T.S.C., Phil kept busy with a wide variety of projects including TEXTURE (Vital Recordings), HELICOPTER HELICOPTER (Initial Records), FINE (Flip Records), ONESIDEZERO (Maverick), THE IMPOSTERS (Interscope), KILL THE COMPLEX, THE SNOW (Northern Lights), vOLUMe, (ConCrete), and GO BETTY GO (sideonedummy), as well as contributing to various film and TV soundtracks.
Phil also holds down the low end for the Tom Petty/Johnny Cash tribute band, PETTY CASH (featuring members of Juliette & The Licks, H20, and The Offspring). Phil also enjoys a successful acting and voiceover career with series regular roles on such television shows as City of Angels (CBS), Bob Patterson (ABC), and most recently in his role as art teacher, "Henry Preston", on the FOX hit, Boston Public. Phil was the voice of all TV and radio commercials for the Carl's Jr./Hardee's restaurant chains from 2000 - 2011, as well as the voice of Yamaha motorcycles and ATV's, the World Of Warcraft video game, and countless promos for CBS, ABC, NBC, Adult Swim, and MSG.
www.philbuckman.com |
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Gallery |
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Photo by Gino Carlini /
Carlini Photography inc. |
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Find The Trouble With Angels at your local independent record store. |
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