Godhead - The Shadow Line

Published Jan. 28 2007

*=Staff's pick	Trapped In Your Lies* Hey You The Gift Fall Down Push* Another Day Once Before Unrequited* Through The Cracks Goodbye* Your End Of Days* Inside Your World

Genre	Industrial/Modern Rock	Jason Miller	Vocals
Tracks	12	Jason Miller	Guitar
Runningtime	43 Min.	Mike Miller	Guitar
Label	Cementshoes Records	Ullrich Hepperlin	Bass
Release	02 Feb. 2007	Glendon Crain	Drums
Country	USA	Ullrich Hepperlin	Keyboard
Similar artists	Staind, Disturbed, Stabbing Westward, H.I.M.

American band Godhead formed in the mid-nineties and apart from the fact that they were the first and only band signed to Marilyn Manson's short-lived Variety label, they have managed to accomplish a bunch of things. A couple of tracks from their 2000 album Years Of Human Error had some heavy rotation on both MTV as well as radio stations, they been featured on soundtracks to Queen Of The Damned, Dracula 2000 and The Blair Witch Project and toured with bands like Disturbed, Marilyn Manson and Rammstein as well as playing at Ozzfest in 2001.

Godhead, that up until now have been completely unknown to me, have apparently changed their direction somewhat with their fifth album The Shadow Line. If Godhead appealed to fans of Nine Inch Nails in the beginning, they are more likely to appeal to the fans of Staind nowadays, with some kind of post-grunge alternative modern rock that is no more metal than what makes it suitable for radio. The band cleverly implies electronically elements that give evidence of their background, but it is not enough to be called industrial music nowadays. There are a lot of catchy hooks within the music and even if they don't grip you all the time it hard not to be captivated by the opening track Trapped In Your Lies and the by ex-Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody produced track Push. Trapped In Your Lies is a potential massive hit as it is really powerful in its mid-tempo industrial flavoured pace with a catchy refrain that sticks immediately. Push follows in the same vein, but on the other hand it is heavier with the supported riffing and it sounds not too far from Disturbed.

Apart from the mentioned ones it is hard to find songs that stick out. For long periods the albums seems to be running empty and you wish for something more to happen as their modern hard rock tends to be too safe, harmless and, well, too standard. Take the semi-ballad Fall Down for instance, it has soft verses with vulnerable vocals and a hooky refrain with just so much heavy guitars and a sweeping melodic, half-melancholic refrain. I am sorry Godhead, but this lacks so much of balls and is so standard procedure that I think only teenage girls with romantic dreams can like this one. However, even if the songs are generally fairly good it feels like they are filling out the gap between the ones that are a little better. Your End Of Days towards the end of the album comes as an eagerly awaited refreshment, a darker and moody track with elements of Radiohead and Muse that even if it is not a standout song feels a bit challenging.

The Shadow Line is perhaps a bit too streamlined for my metal appetite, Godhead hits the right spot with Trapped In Your Lies but for the rest it does not seem to stir up any emotions with me. It is good listening but a little bit too safe and standard with the commercial hit lists more in sight than the artistic creativity as I feel it. It feels like they are holding back and if they would only unleash some goddamn aggression this would probably have been a helluva lot better. But as it is now, it ends up with that I listen to the album for a short while, gets tired, returns and repeat the opening track and then I change album to something else.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
5	4	7	7	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Thomas