Customer Reviews

Survival Of The Sickest [Explicit]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I had likened the process Saliva had made from Every Six Seconds to Back Into Your System. In fact, BIYS had shown many complex levels unlike that of ESS. So i headed to Best Buy this morning and was one of the first to buy the new CD "Survival of the Sickest." I came home and put the CD into the player. I was at first surprised but in the 2nd phase of listening to it later on it worked much better on the mind.

Track Listing as follows:

1. Rock and Roll Revolution: 5/5 At first it took me a while to remember it was Josey Scott singing for the band because he sounded oddly different when starting the song with the patented screams. But the instrumentals were totally on fire.

2. Bait and Switch: 4.5/5 Not losing pace from the opener and keeping touch with the power formula.

3. One Night Only: 4/5 I liked the lyrics for this song for som reason.

4. SOTS: 4.5/5 Awesome title track and i loved the way Scott sings it.

5. No Regrets: 4/5 Certainly not because this song is great.

6. Two Steps Back: 3.5/5 This is where they start the slower ballad stuff reminscint of Rest in Peaces.

7. Open Eyes: 3/5 Not too bad but i'm just not hooked to it.

8. F*** All Y'All: 5/5 What's odd is this band used no cussing in ESS and molded it in BIYS, but this takes it. As angry as Scott goes but the music is awesome

9. I Want You: 5.5/5 Simple lyrics but the music KILLS!

10. Carry On: 5/5 better lyrics: ditto music from 9

11. Razor's Edge: 3.5/5 At first i thought of the AC/DC song and album, and was dissapointed compared to that. But it's still a solid feel for this album.

12. No Hard Feelings: 4/5 Hopefully not because this song wasn't slow or extremely hard, but fell in the middle.

13. Untitled: NA: just 4 seconds of blank

14. Sex, Drugs, and Rock N' Roll: 4/5 According to the groups gutarist Chris this is the offical name of the song, but it goes without naming it a great song which is more old school rock n roll.

Overall: 3.9/5 This CD, like Soctt said in the latest Metal Edge, is more straight forward Rock N' Roll. You can thank Aerosmith and Kiss for that and the tour then did with them. But this CD excels in setting one boundry up and following the lead from song to song. Another plus was that the first song wasn't called SUPERSTAR III!

If you've been sitting and waiting for some advice as to buy or not, take it from me it's well worth the buy. Not just for die hard Saliva fans, but rock enthusists and grinders alike will enjoy this.

The entire album is phenomenal. Yes, the lyrics are pretentious and can be a little annoying if you sit down and analyze them. However, when listening to this album as a whole it is just a true rock n' roll album. Saliva has a unique sound on this album and it rocks...not a bad song on the cd.

This cd is not what "Every Six Seconds" or "Back into Your System" is. Saliva is a gritty hard rock band with that powerful edge on them. This is a decent cd but it lacks the power and imagination of the previous work. If you are a fan try it there are some cool tracks on it.
Update....June 2006...I saw the ses guys this past weekend. I have a new look at this CD....5 + Stars ..These guys are truely awesome live. The power they generate is unbelieveable. This tracks off this CD are way cool live...This is what they world needs. A real rock n Roll band..

Okay. I'm not just writing this review out of the blue. I'm a Saliva fan, and proud. I don't even KNOW any other Saliva fans. People have always asked me why I like them. I've always replied, "Because they're heavy, and they have definite potential to be great." Songs from their previous CDs like "Faultline" (ESS), "Separated Self" (BIYS), and, my favorite Saliva song, "Holdin' On" (BIYS) all showed a definite musical ability outside of the screaming masculinity of rap/rock. So even with the INCREDIBLY stupid title of this CD (don't get me started), I didn't hesitate to buy it.

It took me one listen to HATE it.

I felt ripped off. It sounded like they threw all of their musical ability out the window in favor of being angry rock n' roll saviors. All the songs have stupid lyrics, and it doesn't even sound like they tried. I was pissed, to say the least. I even made myself listen to it a couple of times, before I realized what it really was.

Oops. I was wrong. Or, not wrong, just not looking at it in the right way. It wasn't meant to make you think, or be a thoughtful album. This is high-octane, heavy, fast music. One starts to get into this effect more and more as the album progresses. While some songs try too hard to be cool ("Bait & Switch", terrible song), and some transcend other genres ("Razor's Edge": country, and not good country), most of them are just heart-pumping anthems.

After a good listen, I now have a new respect for this album for what it is. Four stars, -1 for the crap-tacular name and some sorry tracks.

By the way, "No Regrets(Vol. 2)" MIGHT be my new favorite Saliva song.....

Saliva returns after a year and a half after their classic "Back into your system" to bring you "Survival of the Sickest" - my least favorite of their albums. The sound is different from their past two albums and is alot more harder and wnot as good overall. The songs aren't as meaningful and Josey doesn't display his vocals too often on this one. Has a few skippable tracks (3 or 4) and no great songs. A good album to have for harder rock fans but it isn't a good Saliva album.

#1 - 7
#2 - 6.5
#3 - 8
#4 - 7
#5 - 8 (slower song)
#6 - 7.5
#7 - 8.5 (slower song)
#8 - 7.5
#9 - 8.5
#10 - 6
#11 - 4 (kinda country in it's sound)
#12 - 7
#14 - 6.5

check all my reviews

I have to agree with some of the other reviews I've read of this album. After listening to it on the way home from buying the CD, I wasn't all that thrilled. I loved BIYS, am still listening to it regularly. The songs had a certain flow to them, yet were hard and loud. Listening to SofS (yes, the title sucks) was a bit of a change. It's much more hard-angry rock based. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of hard rock/metal/whatever. I just wasn't expecting that from this CD, and I came away disappointed. It seemed to lack the lyrical poetry of BIYS, something I enjoyed greatly about the CD, and instead went with raging anthems. I suppose that shift is was turned me off to the CD.

However, after listening to it two more times so far, it's really starting to grow on me. Songs are beginning to stick in my head. I doubt it will surpass my liking of BIYS, but it's definitely worth listening to.

This album is amazing. The first 2 tracks, Rock & Roll Revolution and Bait & Switch will simply blow you away. This is some mean rock and roll. There are hard rockers like the ones just mentioned, as well as Survival of the Sickest, Two Steps Back and I Want You. There are also beautiful slower songs, such as No Regrets Vol. 2, Open Eyes, The Razor's Edge, and No Hard Feelings. The last bonus track, track 14, may even be the best song on the cd, and reminds me of AC/DC a little. In all honesty, I could live without the songs One Night Only and F*** All Y'all, but overall, this cd deserves in excess of 5 stars. I'm not sure why, but for whatever reason it seems like the cd was hardly promoted and never got on the radio much, but it is excellent anyway. I recommend it to anyone who liked the previous Saliva albums, and anyone who likes straight, pure rock and roll.

'Survival Of The Sickest' is the latest CD release from the memphis band Saliva. Finally after 3 albums they have gotten their act and sound together and gave their fans something to actually cheer about. This is a strong album with some great songs. In this album, the band done away with the punk and rap tones that were so frequent in their other prior releases. They have instead more fittingly treaded into the heavy rock aspect of the rock genre and they are more suited to this kind of sound. Although there are 4 slower paced songs that are beautiful and melodic, for me the slower songs like 'No Regrets', 'Two Steps Back' & 'Open Eyes' were the best of this album and some very beautiful and touching lyrics could be gleamed from these three songs. There are 2 hidden extra tracks that are untitled bonuses. Not bad at all. This CD is well played in my collection and a enjoyment to feel the strong riffs course through my blood after a long day at work such as tonight as I type up this review.

I could not WAIT to write a review on this release. I will admit, I was hesitant to buy this release after the sophmore lull that was "Back Into Your System." Though a fine album for the most part, BIYS lacked that wild emotion and edge displayed on the sparkling "Every Six Seconds." I am not sure how to describe "Survival of the Sickest" other than it kicks serious rock and roll ass. Take a little anthemic Kiss, mix some Motley Crue at its pre-glam best, and roll a little Skid Row and a whole lot of moxey and you have Josey Scott and Companys' finest work to date. It rocks, rolls, oozes and bleeds pure energy from start to finish. The album takes the GnR Velvet Revolver team output and knocks it out of the way to claim THE defacto rock and roll standard of the day. I love many different styles of heavy, loud music, but this band just gets my adrenaline flowing and fist pumping in air the way good classic hard rock should. Unfortunately, the kids will not realize how great this music is..... Thank YOU, Saliva! Though not used by Josey on the two previous albums, his use of foul language has a charismatic affect to emphasize the emotion running through the music.

It's hard to top Saliva's previous album 'Back Into Your System', but they have surely done it with 'Survival of the Sickest'. Each time I listen to it, it just keeps getting better and better. Definitely one of my top ten rock albums of all time (almost compares to Tesla's Mechanical Resonance and GNR's Appetite for Destruction) I enjoy every song on this album. The lyrics and music are not truly innovative or groundbreaking, but it's almost like this album has been sitting in a time capsule since the days of 80's hair rock. And I am sure this album will upset many new-age 'rock-rap' fans who don't have Shotgun Messiah and Sleeze Beez sitting next to Saliva in their CD collection! You can't truly Salivate unless you know where the roots of rock-n-roll are from!