Spoken

Item: On Your Feet
Author: D_Lister

On Your Feet

(1997)

Reviewed by D_Lister

Discogs Apple Music

Label Metro One MusicDead Zine1997

hardcore nu metal rap rock rapcore

There are a few new trends in hardcore these days. It all started when straight forward hardcore began to get a bit boring. Metal influences were the first step, then the hip-hop blends started coming in. Now we are seeing the metalcore bands move towards the black metal side of things including shrieking vocals and black guitars over the backdrop of the hardcore structure. I like this experimentation. There are bands doing all the above that I like very much. Spoken is taking on that hip-hop conversion with their new album On Your Feet. There are lots of rapcore bands that I really dig, P.O.D., E.D.L., and Travail to mention a few.

Spoken to me just doesn't fit well with this blend of music. To me it sounds like they are trying a bit too hard to capture that south central feel in their music.

If you read the review of the Friction CD I recently wrote, then most of the things I said there apply to this album as well. The production on this CD is really top notch however. Spoken does some mellower songs on this CD as well, but they sound more like mellow pop songs than what you are used to getting out of a rapcore band.

Fans of this particular genre of hardcore would be advised to at least check into Spoken, but those who are (like myself) picky about the rapcore scene might want to keep looking.

6.5/10