Customer Reviews

Check Your People

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The music is powerful and unique. Rey's lyrics are insightful and true to real social, political and environmental issues threatening the fabirc of our society.

This album is filled with emotion, power, lyrics, and each song just gets your blood pumping. Great stuff.

Check all previous notions of rap-core at the door, for the SoCal socio-political lyrical assailents have come to re-claim the genre they once helped found with an awe-inspiring effort that re-maps the urban-metallic landscape as a D.M.Z. On their third effort and Epitaph records debut, LACA's Downset return proving they not only speak a living, vibrant language of metallic riffage, punk ideas and urban agression, they define a new ideal for all three. Based in a hardcore foundation of driven, sonic affliction and true urban diversity Downset pervey both in a tell-all, true-to-form exploration of not only the self, but the world around them as a whole. With enough personal angst and emotional trauma to rival the SouthWests tectonic plate movement, the quintet seek to set to music the inspiring ideal that there can never be true bliss in ignorance. Frontman Rey Oropeza and company have come to terms with their own personal trials and tribulations in order to perpetuate urban agression with a positive and thought provoking message of unity and awareness. Leading the charge is a thick, groove laiden bottom end, complete with churning, angst-cleansing breakdowns paired against an up-front, anthem-laiden guitar leads which are continually tredged upon by the lyrical assault of Oropeza. This three way adaption of styles results in memorable chorus, catchy hooks and stomping passages that appeal to both nu-skool ideals and old-school street smarts. It is by way of this crossover between the ever-popular rap-core genre and the more traditional urban-laced hardcore that Downset originally made thier mark and have continued to be one of the best-kept secrets in the scene, having influenced everyone including co-founders Rage Against the Machine. It never means as much as it does right now, so take heed, for Downset have you in thier sites for this urban-enlightenment assault on the inner-self and plan on taking no prisoners with their sound.

forget the reviews you might see by others!This album is great!I am primarily into death/thrash....and I love this!Do not even compare these guys to RAGE (which I think stink!). These guys border on death metal stlye vocals at some points and are heavy!They rap a little, but it is in a hardcore-brutal stlye.Five stars all the way!

This a good album to play after you got fired. There's so much anger, hatred and power in these songs that after 15-20 minutes of listening your anger will be completely drained. I think a lot of teeth are still in their right place thanks to this album. Buying this you'll get 50 minutes of anger, hate, despair and other sweet things that make life worth living. And forget about the guys complaining about the drums, guitars or whatever, most of them don't have the slightest clue. I actually like the drums, the ride cymbal is ridden like crazy which gives the songs a feel of running machinery. It's easy to come up with some pseudo technical terms like "riff" or "break" but so hard to do it and Downset does it brilliantly.

this album is good but lost some of the fire and flavor of the first two albums

Es un disco con una produccion mas compacta y aunq me gusta menos q los otros cds, me parece muy bueno

Having followed this band's career since the eponymous album, I do not find the RATM comparisons fair to both bands. OK, they both incorporate rap-based rhythms and breakdowns, they both write inciteful, politically-charged lyrics, their singers are both [mad]...blah blah. But when you stop listening and actually start HEARING, you will find that RATM is an exceptionally talented and versatile RAP band (such as THE ROOTS) tearing it up in the metal/punk/hardcore vein while Downset shake things up with a more oldschool Agnostic Front/Gorilla Biscuits feel.
Of course, just my humble opinion. I personally prefer this album over the second, but stronger songs are just few and far between....Standout tracks "No Home", the title track, and "Tear us Apart" redeem the album from falling into a shoddy mess with the spacing. Had all the strong tracks been at the beginning of the disc, everything else seems like so much filler. I cannot bring myself to give this more than three stars even though I totally respect the band and their vision. Maybe if the next album was shorter and more cohesive (think HATEBREED's first). Thanks.

I followed this band's career from their first album, and I loved both that, and their second CD. But with this one, something just hadn't clicked in my head, for I fail to see anything worth mentioning here.
Everything that has made Downset such a good band to me is gone here, no passion, no inspiration, no softly spoken words delivering the message (like there were so many on their 1st CD). Instead we have a clear nu-metal influence plastered on an old-school-hardcore base, and vocals that try to sound angry, instead ending up sounding tired. And, if that is not enough, Ray Oropeza even tries to sing clear on a couple of tracks. And what an awful attempts these are!

To give this album some credit, I found only 4 songs (of 13 total) that I like, that remind me of their early glory days. Call me old-fashioned, or close-minded, whatever, but I can't give this one more than 3 stars. 3 stars here meaning mostly indifference.

Hope this is not their final CD, and Downset will succeed in exiting in style, just like RATM did.

Yes. It was four years since I got their DO WE SPEAK A DEAD LANGUAGE LP and a little over three years since I saw them live. These guys should have taken only two years off; their musical direction has changed from 'mosh-core' (see early BIOHAZARD) to a sort of nu-metal/rock thing. The clean vocals are awful, Rey (singer.) There is also some rather humiliating dancehall/reggae type vocals done on a few of the songs. Furthermore, the previous release by this band was the best so far for the variation of fast thrashing hardcore songs and heavy mosh grooves. CHECK YOUR PEOPLE has, if I remember correctly, not one fast hardcore/punk song on the album. Thats quite upsetting to me folks. Interestingly there are some AC/DC like hooks thrown here and there on some of the songs like that of 'Together.' If there was some 'saving grace' to this album it would be Rey's lyrics which maintain their social and political stances which were still under development of the last two albums. This overall is a bad downset. album.