The Fundamental Elements of Southtown

Japanese Version Featuring A Bonus Track.

With their aggro music, tattoos, piercings, and dreadlocks, P.O.D. (Payable on Death) might be conveniently filed next to Deftones or Rage Against the Machine. However, like U2, whose "Bullet the Blue Sky" they cover, P.O.D. are actually a Christian-based rock band, though not overtly religious enough to scare nonbelieving music fans away. This multiethnic quartet from the Southtown area of San Diego purveys an amalgam of modern music; elements of rap, metal, reggae, and hip-hop permeate this 16-track debut. P.O.D. doesn't bring much new to their hybrid style on The Fundamental Elements of Southtown, but what they do, they do well. From the gentle, reggae-tinged "Set Your Eyes to Zion" to the heavy grind of "Hollywood" and the rap-metal of "Lie Down," P.O.D.'s diverse and rockin' musical messages of positivism should make the foursome, already well known on the Christian rock circuit, a band to reckon with in secular circles. --Katherine Turman