vote
7.5
- Band:
Tetrarch - Duration: 00:31:51
- Available since: 09/05/2025
- Label:
-
Napalm Records
Streaming not yet available
It was the year 2001 when the “satellite” of the Pods came out, the “Break the Cycle” of the Stainds and the “Toxicity” of the System of A Down, in what with the hindsight was the last gold season of Nu Metal. In August he also saw the light of the debut of the Adema, a formation that made him talk about himself first for the illustrious kinships (the singer Mark Chavez is the half -brother of Johnathan Davis dei Korn) and then thanks to successful singles such as “Giving in” and “Freaking Out”, capable of bringing the homonymous album to see a million copies bringing the Bakersfield band to the MAIN internship of the Ozzfest; Obviously ephemeral success and son of the time, with the carriage returned pumpkin in a few years and performances soon relegated to the village festivals between one line-up change and the other.
Jump forward of a couple of decades: the Nu Metal has returned overwhelmingly in fashion among young people both in its historical exponents (just mention the renewed enthusiasm for Limp Bizkit, Korn and Linkin Park) and in the new levers, of which the tetrarchs are undoubtedly one of the best expressions. Unlike many peers, who add several elements to Nu influences that range from metalcore to the most boost electronics, the Atlanta band on the contrary retraces the most classic footsteps of the genre – from syncopated riffs to vocal salisecends, passing through electronic contaminations and anxiolytic texts – adding some solo to Diamond Rowe (as for example in “Live not Fantasize “or in” Erase “), first guitarist with a Jackson's signature model and increasingly social face of the band together with the singer/guitarist Josh Fore.
Compared to the previous “Unstable” there are no longer traces of Slipknot, therefore the sound of “The Ugly Side of Me” is easily summarized as an intersection between the sick allure of the Korn and the melodic urgency of the Linkin Park, or in other words the improved version of the aforementioned Adema. The Kornian Riff of “Anything Like Myself”, with the inevitable scratch in the background, takes us back to the glories of “Untouchables”, and from here on the script does not differ very much while remaining in the surroundings of Bakersfield, with just some more linksinparka concession (“The Only Thing I've Got”).
The only novelty element is the debut of the aforementioned Diamond as a co-protagonist behind the microphone on “Never Again (parasite)” and in the title-track placed in closing, while the owner singer is closer to the aforementioned Mark Chavez than Jonathan Davis.
In addition to the novelty effect, on this occasion a little of that variety that had characterized the previous album (for example the accelerated version of the disturbed “pushed down” or the percussive fury of “negative noise”), but the impression is that the band opted for a more compact and direct sound, with songs such as “Best of Luck”, “Crawl” or “Cold”. The shots of the riffs inherited from Munky and Head (when it is said 'Children of the Korn', citing the song of the same name).
The various Adema, Taproot, Spineshank and all hidden heroes of the Ozzfest Second Stage can finally rest in peace: their inheritance is in good hands, and this time the tetrarchs are in the front row in the New Wave of Nu Metal.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
