On “Lost in Portrait,” Trapt’s lead singer wants to be transparent for someone he hopes will complete him. Hatebreed’s guttural “Bound to Violence” worries about a friend trapped in a cycle of pain, hostility and grief. “Broken” (by Seether) goes a step further, saying, “I wanna hold you high and steal your pain away.”
For every song about rising above darkness or rescuing someone from pain, three feel bitter, self-destructive or resigned to a grim fate. Ben Moody, formerly of Evanescence, threatens a betrayer (“I’ll live to send you to your death … I’ll track you down/I’ll beat you to the ground”). On Strata’s “Piece By Piece,” the tormented singer describes being ripped apart and reassembled. Angry f-words appear on Seether’s “Sold Me,” Drowning Pool’s “Step Up” and “Never Say Never” by Queens of the Stone Age (which tells a woman, “I might like you better if we slept together”). A man drowns agony in alcohol and wants an ex to “rot in hell”(Seven Wiser’s “Sick”). Atomship contemplates genocide on “Time for People.” Drug references mar “Eyes Wired Shut” (Edgewater) and “Slow Chemical” (Finger Eleven).
The R-rated film (based on a comic book hero) is about a G-Man who turns vigilante crime fighter after his family is killed. That may explain the moody, vengeful temper of this music, but it doesn’t justify it.
