Filter on DeBaser: reviews, rants, and essential spins

The Profile

Filter is an American rock band formed in 1993 by Richard Patrick and Brian Liesegang. Led by Patrick, the group blends industrial textures with alt-rock, breaking through with “Hey Man Nice Shot” and achieving wide recognition with Title of Record and its hit “Take a Picture.”

Founded in 1993 by Richard Patrick (formerly in Nine Inch Nails’ early live lineup and active during the Broken era) and Brian Liesegang. Core releases include Short Bus (1995), Title of Record (1999), The Amalgamut (2002), Anthems for the Damned (2008), The Trouble with Angels (2010), The Sun Comes Out Tonight (2013), Crazy Eyes (2016), and The Algorithm (2023). Patrick has collaborated in Army of Anyone (with the DeLeo brothers) and The Damning Well (with Wes Borland, Danny Lohner, and Josh Freese). The band’s lineup has shifted frequently around Patrick.

Four reviews trace Filter’s swing from blistering debut highs to polarizing turns. Short Bus gets lauded, Title of Record earns mixed approval, The Amalgamut takes heat, and Anthems for the Damned is praised for a more reflective, political edge. Richard Patrick’s voice and the band’s shifting lineup and collaborators recur throughout.

Notable Quotes

❝ Richard Patrick has cleaned up and continues to write and play like a man possessed.

❝ Richard Patrick really has a great voice, which can be intense and harsh at the same time, so he easily adapts to both hard and pure rock songs and some tender ballads like the ones that lately populate his records.

❝ the middle part of the album turned out to be a horrible mess, dull, banal tracks, a bunch of frankly irritating unnecessary ballads

❝ This is certainly among the most innovative masterpieces of the last 10 years, it’s a must of a disappeared genre or at least never existed, Grunge or Alternative Rock, call it what you will but I assure you that for how this CD sounds it’s the avant-garde of Post-Modern Industrial (1995).