Music review: Testify

The Christian rock, nu-metal, post-grunge band by the name of P.O.D. has a new album out entitled; "Testify". The album is …Luminous, as is the band P.O.D. I'm realizing. Testify is the fourth album by P.O.D. who came on the scene back in 1999 with “The Fundamental Elements of Southtown”. By now they have clearly mastered their form of swirling layers of guitars over a tight rhythm section laced with tasteful rap and reggae style singing. With the appearance of Hasidic reggae rapper Matisyahu on the Very first track, “Roots In Stereo” the best rock reggae metal combo is realized since 311 Grassroots. Track 11 “Strength of My Life” also features Matisyahu as well as a poignant feeling hook interwoven into an edgier more interesting version of one of the best Sublime tracks. “Mark my Words”, track thirteen, is just phat. In a hip hop meets power chord sort of way. It’s easily one of the best songs on the album, or any album released this year for that matter. When I purchased the album at the Imusic store it came with mucho bonus material including a fifty minute discussion of the album by the band with the album playing in the background and several Itunes compatible music video movies. The mood of P.O.D. is pensive and reflective while also being triumphantly jubilant at times. The duality of mood that Metal meeting Reggae accomplishes allows for transitions and sections in the song structures that tell more of a story than any single genre band is capable of. This album represents Reggae Metal at its best.