Headcrash

Overdose on Tradition (Discovery Records)

By Laura Karnes

People with varied tastes in music should be thrilled with this release from a band called Headcrash. Although I have never heard of them, they captured my attention with their blend of hardcore, metal, funk and rap.

The CD opens with "Plugged In," which reminds me of a heavier Beastie Boys sound. The second song, "Imitation of Life," has more of a techno, dance feel to it, rather than the more hardcore sound of the previous song.

That is the beauty of this CD. The music changes direction throughout, so you never know what you're going to hear next. As I said before, Headcrash blends many styles of music together to form their own style, which is like no other band that I've heard before. Each song brings to mind a variety of other bands that probably influenced Headcash, but yet you can't quite pinpoint it to one certain band.

Another interesting fact about Headcrash is their members. The band features two vocalists and two people who play guitar and bass, along with a drummer and keyboardist, who is in charge of programming and sampling. Sampling is a big part of the music on this CD.

Sometimes this is okay if it adds something to your music, but I do think that Headcrash relys a bit too heavily on this.

The main theme to this CD is that the world revolves around politics, money and television. The band makes references to how people don't think for themselves, such as the line "televised generation", and "commercials and malls life is never that perfect", both from the song "Plugged In."

So if you're hungry for some hardcore music and you want to do a little dancing, pick up Overdose on Tradition. It will definitely satisfy your appetite.