POWERMAN 5000 "New Wave" ALBUM REVIEW by Jordan Owen

My review of "New Wave," the newest release from Powerman 5000. Transcript below the video. Be sure to upvote and resteem!

By Jordan Owen
(c)2017

The late 90’s were a mixed bag for metal bands. While the rap/rock hybrid stylings of the era were far from warmly received by metal purists, the era’s unorthodox leanings gave us some of the most important and enduring modern metal artists including Korn, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, and a whole host of others. Still, many other promising artists were here-and-gone in the blink of an eye. One of the brighter flashes in the late 90’s one hit wonder pan was Powerman 5000.

I can vividly remember the first time I saw the cyberpunk engorged video for “When Worlds Collide,” and was instantly absorbed- they were like a more radio friendly Static X with a lyrical ethos filled with the kind of William Gibson/Philip K. Dick themes that already commanded my imagination. I eagerly went out and purchased “Tonight the Stars Revolt” only to find that the rest of the record failed to live up to the promise of that first single. There were high points to be sure- the ominous spoken word intro written by the (probably fictitious) J.P. Saticoy and the haunting “Nobody’s Real” outstanding among them but at the end of the day the album, on the whole, had production so slick you could skate pennies across it but lacked the musicianship and catchy songwriting that would have given the band staying power.

I lost track of Powerman 5000 after that and it wasn’t until I chanced upon their covers album, 2011’s “Copies, Clones and Replicants” which was a surprisingly cohesive, well played set of tributes to the likes of David Bowie, Van Halen, Twisted Sister, and many others. A little research showed that primary Powerman and band leader Spider One had been rotating band members over the years until he was surrounded by a team of top flight session players that were better able to bring his vision to life than the group’s technically limited early line up. The result was a band that had made enormous leaps forward in musicianship whilst damned to the has-been section of obscurity.

Mercifully, recent years have been better to Powerman with the group’s 2014 offering “Builders of the Future” being its first to appear on the Billboard 200 since 2006’s “Destroy What You Enjoy.” In addition to a more technically proficient lineup I chock up the group’s recent resurgence to the toppling of the old guard of the record industry. No longer do monolithic record companies determine the tastes of the ignorant masses and as such bands are more free to evolve in their own way and accrue a more natural, sincere fan base. Powerman 5000 has definitely benefited from just that and it’s in this more creative headspace that we are richly rewarded with the band’s eleventh album “New Wave.”

Simply put, “New Wave” is to industrial metal what “24k Magic” is to R&B: an endlessly listenable collection of tracks that feels like biting into a rack of fall off the bone ribs. The first three tracks blow by in a whirling rush of industrial metal abandon but each boast their own identity. Opening track “Footsteps and Voices” sports a Juggallo pleasing redneck rap verse and raging hook while “Hostage” carries the kind of German dance hall groove adored by Marilyn Manson and KMFDM and 3rd track “Sid Vicious in a Dress” is so catchy it ought to be studied by the CDC. All three tracks are sold representations of the Powerman sound but it’s the next cut, the brashly titled “David Fucking Bowie” that shows the group’s newly expanded abilities, at the center of which is Spider One’s rich, melodic baritone that calls comparison to Robert Smith as well as, well, David Fucking Bowie.

It’s the fifth and sixth tracks, however, that are the most surprising. “Cult Leader” is an endlessly melodic, eternally catchy piece of power punk that draws heavily from Cheap Trick and “No White Flags” is an honest-to-god power ballad with the kind of powerhouse vocal technique that would make modern metal vocal masters like Corey Taylor and David Draiman proud. The rest of the album follows suit with only the J-Pop influenced closer “Run For Your Life” showing the slightest hint of strain. The result is thirty minutes of some of the best industrial metal ever recorded- an underrated milestone that shows the virtuostic versatility not just of the band but the genre as a whole. I’ve been following Powerman 5000 on Instagram since sitting down with this record and it looks like they’ve been rocking packed houses across the country- a long overdue return to form and prestige. Thumbs up.