P.O.D. have exploded to the stratosphere with their finest work to date, the extraordinary "SATELLITE." A high-decibel blast of potent cross-cultural power rock, the San Diego-based quartet's second Atlantic Records release is at turns joyful, provocative, challenging, and utterly real. Co-produced by the band with Howard Benson (the man behind the board for P.O.D.'s RIAA platinum certified label debut, 1999's "THE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF SOUTHTOWN"), tracks like the fervent first single, "Alive" or the emotionally charged "Youth of the Nation" find P.O.D. relentlessly reaching heavenward to evoke a sense of positive vibrations unique to today's rock n' roll.
"All the great rock bands were always driven by passion and emotion," says Marcos, the band's versatile guitarist, "whether it's a negative passion and emotion or a positive passion and emotion. And for us, a lot of the rock that's out today - and I'm not saying any names - a lot of it's devoid of any type of emotion. It's all processed and done up in the studio. But to us, we always put all of our love and everything that we have into our music."
"SATELLITE" was recorded at Bay 7 Recording Studio in Sherman Oaks, and Image Studios in Los Angeles over a three-month period in spring 2001. With Benson and longtime Metallica engineer Randy Staub at the helm, P.O.D. recorded nearly 20 new songs. The sessions saw the four musicians stretching out into the band they'd always envisioned themselves as being, a truly free rock unit incorporating an infinite variety of textures and styles - from reggae to rock, hip-hop to hardcore - into an already genre-blurring sonic arsenal.
"There's not really a word that can describe P.O.D.," says Marcos. "If you were to go to each one of our homes and look at our CD collections, you would see everything from metal to punk to jazz to reggae, you name it. Everything. Except maybe country, but other than that, we have it all."
"If it feels good, it feels good," notes Traâ. "That's a P.O.D. rule. When I came to the band, I was very stubborn about what I wanted to play, but being with these guys opened me up to a lot of different music. And the most important thing with music is how does it make you feel? Not whether you like it or don't like it. If you feel good listening to something, then it's a good song. If you don't, then it's not." The notion that rock n' roll is meant to move and inspire is prevalent on"SATELLITE," especially on such tracks as the style-jumping "Ghetto" and the exultant anthem, "Alive."
"We didn't have a name for it yet," says Sonny of the latter song's genesis, "but we were calling it 'Beautiful' because it made us feel beautiful. And that drove the direction of the lyrical content, because we wanted people to go, 'Hey, this makes me feel good.' We recorded...
