Track Listing

1. Violent Mood Swings
2. Slavery
3. Smothered
4. Consumed (Obsessive Compulsive)
5. Beginning Of The End
6. Forgotten
7. Self-Destructive Pattern
8. Tear Me Down
9. Stillborn
10. Falls Apart
11. Fallback
12. Dead To Me

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21739 in Music
• Released on: 2003-09-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics

Album Description
UK limited edition of the alternative metal act's 2003 album has earlier release with the domestic delayed until September. Slipcase. Roadrunner Records.

Customer Reviews

Spineshank goes out with a bang...
It's a shame to me that this band has called it quits when their career was just on the brink of greatness. With `Self Destructive Pattern' they proved that they were finally going to break into the mainstream and garner the respect and admiration from everyone. While personally I feel that `Height of Callousness' was a better album, and I admit that there are moments within `Self Destructive Pattern' where I feel they sold out a bit too much I still can't help but feel drawn to this album in it's entirety. It is still a brutal and forceful offering and deserves to be regarded as such.

Truth remains, Spineshank went out with a bang.

The album's lows can be summed up in two words; the singles. `Smothered' (which gave Spineshank their first universally received radio hit) and `Beginning of the End' (which appeared on the `Freddy vs. Jason' soundtrack) sum up what I mean about selling out. They sound like nothing I've ever heard come out of Spineshank. Let me rephrase that. They sound like everything I feared I'd one day hear come out of a band I respect and admire. They are both way too commercial. It's one thing to be slowed down and melodic, even catchy but it's another thing to put out release these sorry excuses for rock music. `Smothered' has a few more redeeming qualities in it's repertoire than `Beginning of the End' but both tracks are skipped when I listen to this album.

Okay, moving on to the greatness...

Redemption is found in `Forgotten', a track that proves that you can be slow and melodic and still be brutal in message and structure. `Forgotten' is one of my favorite songs Spineshank has ever released and it only gets better and better every time I listen to it. `Fallback' is a different sound; a different style for Spineshank, but it works wonderfully. I just love the flow of this song. It's catchy, but not in a bad way. It sounds natural.

The rest of the album is pure brutality. From the opening `Violent Mood Swings' to the closing `Dead to Me' Spineshank take no prisoners and show no mercy, keeping the intensity on the upswing. The best examples of this lie in tracks like `Slavery' that just come at you full force and let it all out. The bridge itself to `Slavery' is one of my favorite musical moments on the album; ferocious. `Stillborn' continues this trend, using the electro-rock type musicianship that was made their trademark on `Height of Callousness'. `Consumed' adds layers to the brutality with melodic and haunting vocals that elevate the track to greatness. The title track as well as `Falls Apart' and `Tear Me Down' will not disappoint.

The album as a whole is virtually flawless. In fact had they just subtracted the two `singles' I would have given this a full five stars but I must penalize them for poor judgment there. Aside from those two blunders there is not one bad thing I can say about this near perfect album. Like I said, it's a major shame that this band has gone their separate ways, for as odd as this sounds, Spineshank made beautiful music together.

Killer
Those of you fans of Spineshank, will appreciate this album. You are going to hear the direction they want their sound to head towards. Fast and heavy with a little slower tunes peppered in the mix. Good rockin' music!

Spineshank's 3rd and last album
This is their most commercially accessible album, but I don't mind that as long as they don't sell out completely. It doesn't always have to be brutally heavy for me to like it. It's too bad that they broke up, cause they were one of my favorite bands. Jonny Santos is now heading up a new band called Silent Civilian, which are pretty good. They are heavier than Spineshank was, but have some potential.

Try "Strictly Diesel", their debut album, to get a true taste of what Spineshank is all about. I almost died listening to it once. It was my fault though, not theirs. LOL.