You really can’t go wrong
4
By TDP
When I first purchased Balance back in 2000, I was blown away—I had never heard anything like S&M, and I listened to it constantly, practically memorizing every verse. Along came Bad Dreams, and while my expectations were sky-high, I’m probably in the minority when I say I was a bit disappointed with it overall. Sure, there are several great tracks, but it didn’t live up to Balance for me. Years later, the apocalypse for Swollen fans dropped: the atrocity known as Heavy. Madchild and Prev rapping about Cadillacs and clubs?! This album was so bad, it was depressing to any longtime fan. I was so disenchanted with their new direction, I slowly forgot about them, opting for acts like Slaine, Jedi Mind Tricks, AOTP, and Immortal Technique. I stumbled upon Dagger Mouth a few years back, and fell in love all over again. This was the closest album to Balance to date, in my opinion. While not perfect, it has some truly outstanding tracks, and features Madchild rapping openly about his drug addiction and lavish lifestyle that almost ruined him and the group for good. It was brutally honest, dark, and cleverly violent—great album. Beautiful Death Machine tried to stay close to the formula, but ultimately was disappointing for me, which leads us to Brand New Day. It’s hard to believe I’ve been listening to Swollen for 14 years now, and truthfully, their good to great material outweighs their subpar tracks by quite a wide margin. They seem to have found a way to return to the dark, gritty roots of Balance, while still evolving as a group in terms of production and subject matter. My expectations for their albums are probably unfairly high, but while I didn’t like this album as well as Dagger Mouth, I did enjoy it more than the bogged down Death Machine, which really didn’t have any major standout tracks (although I did enjoy hearing Ill Bill rip a verse at the end of the album—one of the most talented and underrated rappers out there). Anyways, if you’re a Swollen fan, you’ll be pleased to own this. It’s another great album by a truly unique and ultra-talented group—I’m glad that they have been gracing their fans with so much quality material lately. Their legend continues to grow—just buy it already.
