Inside Out - No Spitiritual Surrender Review

First off, a RIP to Rosa Parks. Im not going to go on about the world lost another beautiful soul and what have you cause if you didnt know that already, get the fuck out of this site and get educated.

So what is Inside Out? I'll call them 90's "metalcore" but make no mistake about it, the main draw here is the vocalist, none other than Zack de La Rocha.

See, Mr. de la Rocha's earliest influences were old punk groups like the Sex Pistols, which of course led to appreacieation of hardcore punk like Bad Brains or Minor Threat and heavy metal (although I can't pinpoint exactly what the band is, there certainly is a metal influence.)

After being in a straight edge band, he made this group, Inside Out, and this is their 1990 EP. This is a mere 2 years before "Rage Against the Machine" came out, and during that time Zack picked up a huge influence from Public Enemy and to a lesser degree KRS-1, Run-DMC, EPMD, Eric B. & Rakim, etc.

The "Rakim meets Chuck D of Public Enemy" voice we all know and love is not present on this album. The guitar playing sticks to metalcore and so are the vocals - screamed for the most part, sung a little, it is basically never rapped like it was in RATM. Zack does already sport activist lyrics, but they stem mostly from Minor Threat and hardcore punk, not Public Enemy and KRS-One and political hip-hop.

So this is not a Rage album, nor does it sound like it, nor does it attempt to be onr or sound like it. But is it good?

This CD has alot going for it, but ultimately Inside Out is just another band with good intentions and reedeming qualities but not enough good music to ever be one of your favorite bands. Nor can they be - Zack's split and the RATM rise and fall have made this EP more of an interesting relic in Zack's career - a place for one to examine his growth as an artist rather than a CD for actual musical value.

It's not bad, it's just not that good. It's a fairly interesting listen and if you can get it at your nearest "legal downloading center" it's worth the short downlading time(it's only 6 songs, clocking in at 15 minutes). In fact, alot of the songs sound very similar and thus you might just want to listen to a few songs. Recommended for Zack and RATM fans who are curious about the evolution of the band.