The Awakening

For The Awakening, P.O.D. ventured into concept territory, telling the story of a man who confronts the oppressive facets of his character, from his politics and his anger to his fear to his infidelity (or participation thereof), to ultimately his spiritual awakening. This Goes Out to You takes a breather from the story, setting aside some time to thank their longterm fans. The Awakening focuses more on the metal side of P.O.D., with very little rapping present here; some of their darkest moments can be found on Awakening, as well as some of their funniest (Revolucion, anyone?). The lounge jazz of Want It All doesn’t work, but the rest is successful. Highlights are Rise of NWO, Am I Awake, Somebody’s Trying to Kill Me and the epic title track, one of the best album closers and title tracks I’ve heard. If you like anything from P.O.D. or just their metal side, I recommend you get The Awakening, if you won’t mind the story snippets in the songs; I don’t mind them, but I understand those who do.

It’s good

I'm a BIG P.O.D. fan but this album made NO sense to me. Some of the actual songs were very good, but the little vignettes were totally confusing and irritating to me. This is the only album of theirs that I haven't given 5 stars.