my review of Insomnia

New CD from California's Hed PE is called "Insomnia" and it's out due to July 17th. It is not easy to put this album into one certain category. It is not even easy to judge it. This one's really various both musically and lyrically: it ranges from rap to trash metal. It's some kind of mash-up of whole Hed's discography and, naturally, whole lot of new, experimental stuff. Everyone's going to find something for himself. There's some punk rock here, rap, rapcore, metal, "sexcore" and so on. One word - G-Punk! You can ever find a cover of legendary "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield here (it hides under the name "Children"). Despite its variety, album is good from the beginning to the far end. Maybe it's because of the brilliant lyrics, for example:
"Today's the day, the time is here, we take back control and conquer our fears!"
I can guarantee that you haven't heard this kind of blend yet. Energetic metal of "Walk On By" hits you in one minute and then quickly turns into "SubNoize" rap in "Game Over", then gets back to punk rock in "Habeus" and so on. But it's really good mix, you can't tell it's done by few bands. You can hear Hed PE in every single song, you can hear this special Hed's style in every single song! DJ Product again goes crazy with samples from various movies - about freedom, politics and other. Oh, and there's also a little bit of blaming commercial music industry. Hed PE have always wanted to stay underground and independent. I don't know about you, but I really like when music is being done because of love, not money... I think noone will be disappointed after listening to "Insomnia": you can hear the big leap from "Back 2 Base X" here. For example drums on B2BX sounded pretty weak, kind of unmastered. Drums on "Insomnia" are perfect. I will wait with the sentence that it's their best album, beacuse it's too early to say that yet. But I can easily say it's one of their best works during these 13 years of Hed PE for sure!

and a word after the official review: this album is the shit!

dope review man, i think you're pretty right in everything

well......i love it...its about time they did a song with kottonmouth...ever since i heard them back in the day on k-rock i went out bought broke and i looked at the thank u part for all the other bands and kottonmouth was one of them...and at the time i was like wow they r Cool with eachother they should do some music than like a decade later they start doing music lol but anywayz....i love every second of each song...its hard to find bands that u can just listen to the whole cd and not really skip any songs...only with hed pe i could never really skip songs execpt for on black out lol...but other than that THIS ALBUM IS ILL AND THEY BETTER MAKE MORE MUSIC VIDEOS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD...it be pretty ill if david finch (director of fight club) did a video for them

thanks for the great review, now it's a lot harder to wait for it...

Cool review Onan

i have to admit that this album is terrible. In my opinion it doesnt do anything but sound like songs they have already done, or the songs that sound different (so called punk songs), sound like a cheap imitation of a combination of rancid/th transplants. The rap songs are probably the only creative songs on the album (Chorus parts).
I am the biggest hed pe fans, so this is hard for me to say, but i guess in my opinion this has been in the making.

Insomnia sounds like a overproduced album done by an unexperienced producer/mixer (Jared). So it equals sounding like crap. And by the way just cause you say you're punk rock in every other song doesnt mean you're in fact punk rock. Youre actually the total opposite of punk rock, a poser.

By the way im calling it right now, hed pe isnt going to break up, but they will go on a hiatus, while jared (with possibly dj product) cut a rap album for sub noize. this is just my predictions and not a fact or rumor or speculation; just my opinion.

so i think the album is terrible as a whole. some songs stand out but as a whole it just doesnt square up to past albums.

thanks.

lol

"Why do you come on a forum to heckle a band?"

lol, homie what are ya doin' man :'D

Stop bitching, guys. joeolive1234 fairly expressed his opinion.
You can dissagree and oppose but you have to respect it.

These two last post were just totally useless.

mr jack - fuckin agreed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

not everyone has to like the new shit - im disappointed in the new cd too - but im gonna give it a fair shake and listen to it more

yea, that's right, on some points he's even right... but damn... don't bring hed down, cuz overall it's a dope cd

That's what I think too. But that doesn't make it true.
Just please respect other people's opinions even when you don't like it.

And I don't want this to be a board of blind fanatics.
You gotta be critical to everyone. Even to your favourite band.

you're right, but, i mean, he's just new here, and started blasting on hed... that kinda got me wrong...
sure i respect his opinion...

I'm afraid i hav to agree with joeolive1234 on points he made. the album did disappoint me too. its definitely not the promised "punch in the throat". "Our heaviest album so far" - i dont think so.
However there are a couple of nice songs like Walk on by and Suffa which I really like and listen to everyday. Of course i m still a hardcore fan and will go to all the EU shows which I can make it to but yea dont hate anyone for expressing his/her own opinion.

Broke2012 wrote:

he's just new here

Yeah, he is new on this board. But that doesn't really mean much to me.
The way he wrote it makes me think he's a very inteligent person and that's way more important than how many post does he have.

Now let's end this off topic disscusion and get back on track!

ok, you're right, i'm sorry.. back to the album

the more i listen it, the more it grows on me, only what's really weird is that if you listen it, some songs, as an example Tienanman Squared sound like they were produced at a lower level

Church Of Realities is mastered about the same or even less, and you all don't say it's bad n shit. Paradox?

You listen to MUSIC, not mastering, so don't say it would be better if it was mastered by professionals.

Wangstah wrote:

Church Of Realities is mastered about the same or even less, and you all don't say it's bad n shit. Paradox?

You listen to MUSIC, not mastering, so don't say it would be better if it was mastered by professionals.

I fully agree with you Onan.
Does it really matter so mutch how its mastered??? Nooooot
The important part is that we have it.

well, the quality matters, i mean, it's dope music and stuff, but i expected more of the quality after B2BX, now they're with subnoize

If your a die hard fan than this album is for you but if your looking for another Broke look else where. Like Onan said the thing that makes it so good is the fact that they are just all over the place with diffrent kinds of music, but I love the fact that they incorparated alot of more punk into it. I love the direction they went with the album I am glad that Hed goes against the norm and does what they want to do. But that's just one asshole's opinion

Wangstah wrote:

Church Of Realities is mastered about the same or even less, and you all don't say it's bad n shit. Paradox?

You listen to MUSIC, not mastering, so don't say it would be better if it was mastered by professionals.

Yes, it is mostly about the content not the form.
But I myself was messing around with mastering and it does affect the final feel very much.
And the guy didn't say they haven't put enought money into it or that it sounds cheap. He said it's overproduced. That means everything is fine, no noise, no cracks but it just doesn't feel right.

I can't say I feel the same about it, I just wanted to make this clear.

óverproduced...hmm, well, is there going to change a lot on the official release?

i like the album alot...the only thing i really dont like tho is he bashes on a lot of republicans and im republican lol

i have to admit i knew i was going to stir everyone up with my comments. However, i just needed to vent because i had really high hopes for this album but it just doesnt deliver like anticipated.

As for being new, i am nothing close to be new on this board or the original board. ive been watching and reading these boards, almost everyday. i have a few posts, i admit but that doesnt make me any less of a die hard hed pe fan. Ive seen hed pe play 15 times since my first show in '99 when they played at the glass house in pomona, ca. I will see the for the 16th time this week.

Now for Insomnia, i do like a couple of songs, such as:walk on by, c2gu, game over, and rto (especially the beginning). I wasnt looking for anything similar to the broke album, but i was looking for something different, as quoted before by jared, "a puch to the throat."

Hed as a live band impress everytime. as you know jared talks about pussy, getting high, fucking, bob marley and emo bands and emo kids. Very funny stuff, but i have to say that i am pretty annoyed with the emo rants and shit talking because i have heard him say it so many times, ever since after the blackout era. It just kind of gets old.

What im saying is i wish the lyric writing would just move on and be more creative (self titled), although i give jared credit because he has really researched and exposed to us fans topics like the illuminati, masonry, and political arguments.

thanks for hearing me out, once again.

I have to agree with joeoliver1234 100% with his last 2 post.

I have also been a fan for years and seen countless of live shows. and spend most of my working hrs reading this and the original board as well. and only cuz I dont post doesnt make me less of a fan than all of you.

I have only gone through the whole cd about 3 times. so i still dont have a strong review for this album. I like some song and dislike other. just like most of you. BUT im tired of hearing punk rock and fony in every other song as well....

Today i will be seating at home playing poker and rockin out Insomnia for most of my evening/night. I hope by the end of my day i will be enthusiastic for tomorrows show..