Filter
Amalgamut

My anticipation for this album was, we can say, more than feverish. For various reasons: the debut of this group with the album "Short Bus" was electrifying, while the second "Title of the Record" left a bitter taste in my mouth: it wasn't up to the level of its predecessor, even though it contained some great tracks; moreover, the record label had presented this third album by Filter, shortly before its release, as "a cross between Soundgarden and Radiohead"... well!

This album will be incredible! It will be much better than the first! It will be incredibly better than the second! I thought this back then, given that "Title of the Record" (the second CD of the American group) had already toned down the initial fervor into a more listenable sound and (allow me) a tad more commercial. So, the album comes out, I rush to buy it and almost considered taking a mortgage just to have it, I head home after leaving a kidney behind with the shopkeeper, I sit down, put the CD on and...

Well, the first track is rock, guitar starts, angry voice, instrumental part in the middle... okay, nothing special; "American Cliché": very similar to the first track, chorus that sticks in your head, nice but nothing more... all right, maybe the best is yet to come... I was already starting to wonder where the Radiohead and Soundgarden had gone when the bitter truth hit: the middle part of the album turned out to be a horrible mess, dull, banal tracks, a bunch of frankly irritating unnecessary ballads (for those who loved them, like me); listen to "The Only Way (is the wrong way)", it could easily be an English rendition of a Gatto Panceri piece.

I stood immobile in the chair, and the world came crashing down on me, I simply couldn't believe that a group capable of releasing a powerful, original, and innovative album like "Short Bus" could be reduced to such smoldering crap. After all, the second wasn't that bad, it was acceptable, let's say even nice... but this!! Towards the end, Richard Patrick also decides to play the rocker like in the old days and has the brilliant idea to start a track by screaming "Motherfuckeeeeer" without music in the background (not even the worst new-metal band ever went so far); and then, the experimenter with the last two tracks which are terribly boring!!!!!!! Naturally, no trace of Radiohead or Soundgarden, only much bitterness because another group has become a victim of the rule: first album, sensational; second album, good but below expectations, third, a memorable flop and twenty-five euros less in my pocket.