Embodyment -- Songs for the Living

8/10

And the transformation is complete. What was a a death/grind metal band three years ago is now playing polished radio-rock. Thankfully, the songs are good, and the band playing them is still talented. Nevertheless, this is a far more extreme change than the Beatles going from girl-pop to bong-pop. We're talking, over the course of three albums in the same amount of years, going from ear-shredding screams and bludgeoning music, to an album your mom, albeit, your cool mom, can enjoy in her soccermobile. That doesn't make Songs for the Living bad, though. Embodyment can play this style of music almost as well as the heavy stuff of their past. And in the realm of rock music, it's not like this is soft. It's still rock music, and there are even some Southern undertones (the band is from Texas) to keep things charmingly interesting.

And hey, despite being relatively obscure, Songs for the Living must have been fairly influential, since later (less-deserving, in my opinion) bands like The Killers' ripped Embodyment's songs off wholesale. Hey, I'm not being a jerk, listen for yourself:

Sure sounds an awful lot like Embodyment's "White Flag," released four years earlier.

Either that, or that riff just reverberated through time. Let's be nice and just say it's the second one.

2002 XSRecords
1. Reaching Out 4:07
2. She's There 4:00
3. Golden Rule 3:41
4. Time 3:21
5. Who's to Blame 4:24
6. Don't Go 3:45
7. Segue Station 3:09
8. It's Alright t 3:49
9. White Flag 4:37
10. Jaywalk 3:40