get harder and heavier on their sophomore effort, matching 's gritty, streetwise rants to lean, driving riffs that manage to back up all the attitudinal posturing. Largely missing are the bits of fluff that filled out ; in their place are tales from the dark side about drugs, corruption, and the like, with affecting a tough, threatening persona most of the time. The furious noise kicked up behind is usually more threatening than his overwrought vocal delivery, but is powerful enough that it doesn't really matter. and the thrashy title track crush most anything on the debut, and like and are far less generic than their counterparts. Many observers were surprised when became the first album to debut at number one on the charts, but it really was one of the best -- and heaviest -- examples of mainstream / in the genre's heyday. ~ Steve Huey