It’s been 7 years, people! Seven years since Richard Patrick and company has delivered a whole Filter album. And sure, absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that, but with teases of new Filter dating back to 2020 when “Thoughts And Prayers” and “Murica” were released fans are now chomping at the bit for a new collection of solid Filter tunez. And that’s not to say that Patrick has been slacking in the years since Crazy Eyes dropped in 2016! Oh no! The prolific artist applied his craft to some film scores (Dark Crimes, Last Rampage), reunited with Nine Inch Nails briefly for their Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame shows, did a start/stop with original Filter cohort Brian Liesgang (Some songs from that new collaboration appear here), and recently teamed up with Jim Louvau to form A Place To Kill (With their debut single available now through Golden Robot Records here). But now it’s back to full on Filter mode and we couldn’t be happier because The Algorithm, Filter’s eighth full-length, is like a veritable best of from the Industrial Hard Rawk veterans.
“The Drowning” is everything you could want in a new Filter opening song and then some with that chugging, edge-of-your-seat staccato riffing and a steady build up leading to Patrick’s veiled iconic scream lurking in the background while “Up Against The Wall” has a more organic Short Bus vibe with a droning bass line that’s funky and fuzzed out amidst the controlled chaos of the drumming. “For The Beaten”, which was unleashed last October, has a new found power within the context of The Algorithm with Patrick’s penchant for writing some truly catchy ass choruses , regardless of the band, still in check and then, as they say in the biz, the hits keep coming with latest single “Obliteration” entering the fray with this perfect amalgamation of Filter’s modern Industrial/Electro sound and a radio-ready edge.
Landing smack down in the middle of this glorious musical potpourri is “Face Down”, a subtle reset but also a thriving, thrashing Hard Rawk number that’s peak Filter through and through followed by “Summer Child” which could easily be the next single from an Army Of Anyone follow-up. “Threshing Floor” is a lumbering beastie that’s all riffs and (mostly) spoken-word Patrick vocals which culminate in a soaring chorus that’s kind of unlike anything Filter has laid down to date.
“Be Careful What You Wish For” is beats and boops and loop-filled and demolishes any question whether or not Filter isn’t, at their core, an Industrial outfit. It’s throbbing, thumping, and primal with Patrick’s vocal delivery long and laborious that also serves as one final blast of the Heavy before the lush, vibrant tendencies of penultimate “Burn Out the Sun” give way to the spaciousness of closing anthem “Command Z”.
The Algorithm arrives on August 25th through Golden Robot Records. Pre-order and pre-save options are available now and can be perused and purchased and all the stuff by heading here. For more from Filter, including where you can catch them live on tour with Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, and Ministry as well as on their own headlining shows, follow them across the information superhighway by clicking here, here, and here.