Additional information
At The Drive-In: Cedric, Omar, Tony, Jim, Paul. Additional personnel includes: Iggy Pop. Recorded at Indigo Ranch Studios, Malibu, California. Seemingly influenced in equal parts by hardcore punk, heavy rock, and modern industrial rap-metal, At the Drive-In provides music tailor-made for head-banging. Unlike such acts as Korn and Limp Bizkit, At the Drive-In isn't afraid to throw in the occasional semi-catchy melody, giving the uninitiated something on which to hang their hat. Other than that, however, there's little in the way of commercial concessions on RELATIONSHIP OF COMMAND. Rampaging guitar riffs, turbo-charged drumming, and super-emotive, lung-challenging vocals are the order of the day. The lyrics are often a bit elliptical, so its sometimes hard to tell exactly what the boys are going on about, but that can work to their advantage too, allowing the listeners to fill in the blanks. Slightly more refined than some of their contemporaries, but undeniably hard-hitting, At the Drive-In stands proudly at the center of circa-2000 heavy rock, and RELATIONSHIP OF COMMAND is their battle cry.
Reviews
Rolling Stone (1/4/01, p.106) - Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2000 - "...Hard-bolied brigands with MC5 guitars and heads full of revolutionary spleen..." Rolling Stone (9/28/00, p.58) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A bracing tonic for our millenial malaise, wrought from equal doses punk, politico-metal-rap and vintage White Panther rage..." Spin (1/01, p.73) - Ranked #5 in Spin's "Top 20 Albums of the Year [2000]" - "...Combines artily abtruse lyrics with thunderously direct guitars...forging a sound [that's] big, thick, and gnarly, capable of evoking the ferocious power of a mushroom cloud..." Entertainment Weekly (9/15/00, p.79) - "...At times, ferociously intense, other times stirring, it never fails to excite." - Rating: A Q (12/00, p.118) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A vibrant, exciting new arrival." Uncut (10/00, p.80) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...[A] riotous fusion of MC5 hairdos and Fugazi sonics....A wired, convulsing fit of an album..." Uncut (p.89) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[W]ith big anthems lurching out of the turbulence." Alternative Press (11/00, pp.96-7) - 4 out of 5 - "...They're a rock band who can write stellar hooks....COMMAND is a strong album..." CMJ (1/08/01, p.8) - Picked as CMJ's "#1 Album of the Year" from 2000. CMJ (8/28/00, p.3) - "...It couldn't sound more 'now', with a timeless intensity and a brutal honesty that rivals the greatest of DC hardcore....With this record, ATDI rockets into the realm of the legendary Fugazi..." Melody Maker (9/19/00, p.50) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...From the MC5, to Big Black, to Rage, to Fugazi, to The Make-Up...ATDI effortless assimilate influences to create 2000's most viscerally exhausting album..." Q (Magazine) (p.115) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] still sounds excellent, at times like a poppy take on Washington art-punks Fugazi, at others like an experimental MC5." Mojo (Publisher) (11/00, p.96) - "...Breathless, urgent rifferama, elements of which can be traced to RATM, The Stooges and...Placebo..." NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.77) - Ranked #5 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year". NME (Magazine) (9/23/00, p.34) - 9 out of 10 - "...Absolutely storming....of the 11 tracks contained within, there is not a pedestrian moment...They deliver in style..."
