1. We Bury Our Dead at Dawn - The Agony Scene 2. Only Our Faces Hide - Beloved 3. Devil Shoots Devil - Stretch Arm Strong 4. Kill and Deceive - Figure Four 5. Face: Face - Norma Jean 6. Broken Upper Hand - Demon Hunter 7. Changing of Times - Underoath 8. Corporate Enthusiast - Dead Poetic 9. Symbiotic - Living Sacrifice 10. Resistance - Zao 11. Abandoned - Soul Embraced
4.5 For The Dvd 3.5 For The Cd (Where Has The Metal Gone?) Submitted on: 2006-06-11
You know, with a cover like this you think the music would be good. Unfortunately, the cd is lacking somewhat in good music. Specifically metal. There are only five, that's right, count 'em, only five metal songs on here. You get an excellent song from the Agony Scene, another from Norma Jean (great band), a song from one of the greatest nu-metal bands, Demon Hunter, a powerful and strong song from the mighty Living Sacrifice (r.i.p.), and an all right song from Soul Embraced. So, where is all the metal? Where's Extol? Well folks, Solid State has sold you out to the almighty popular emocore. Now there is only three emocore songs on this disc. Believe it or not, I actualy like the Underoath and Beloved(us) songs, I didn't realy enjoy the track from Dead Poetics, it's just to whiney and mediocre. By 2004 and so, Solid State had and has a bunch more emocore bands singed on with most of them being patheticaly mediocre and talentless poseurs. At least they got Chariot, Demon Hunter, Norma Jean, and the awsome and spectactular Becoming The Archetype. Not to sure what August burns Red sound like. As for the other three songs on the cd, they are all hardcore from Zao, Stretch Armstrong, and Figuar Four. Those songs are actually pretty tight.
Now the free DvD. This is the real reason to buy this ten dollar set. It's got all (or at least most) of the Solid State music videos up till then. You get the classic video of Living Sacrifice's Reject, Demon Hunter's Infected, Norma Jean's Face: Face, and many others. We also get to enjoy some live footage from six bands with two songs each: Zao, Living Sacrifice, Eso Charis, Norma Jean, Underoath (the first one is one of their old metal songs. Totaly sick!), and Stretch Armstrong. It's a good set but the picture quality isn't that all too good at moments. Also, I wish they had put more of the bamds' song on here from that concert. It's really to bad. All in all, this isn't a bad sampler, but deffinitely shows Solid State declining. Get it for the DVD. It's worth it alone.
good videos, ok music, awful live section Submitted on: 2004-10-18
people are really digging this cd/dvd, or dug it since it's kinda old. here's all i'm going to say. the live section is really lacking. there's something about hardcore, i've heard it refered to as a "fantasy world" and i'll agree, that just needs the right setting to make it work. because really, what you have is, and especially since screamo became all the rage now, you have 5'3 wanna be hobbits shreiking and screaming and playing guitar wearing womens jeans (not that i don't like screamo or whatever its called these days) but its just, well its easy to seem silly. and so some of these bands do.
my point is, dang it, they we'ren't given a chance!
you can't do hardcore on an empty stage under a bright sun, it just looks, well, like a bunch of skinny kids screaming. and when the guitars and drums are barely audible and the vocals sound like they're overwhelming the mics...i don't know why solid state would let their acts preform under these conditions, much less why they'd tape it, and much less why they would release it! all the acts would have come off way better in a club i would have to imagine. i was pretty excited to see the live section and was sorely disapointed.
eso charis, and norma jean just came off really really weird (i think norma jean will benifit from their new singer as well. i dig his long song titles, but he just didn't pull it off live, or not in this setting anyway.) (though i did dig when aaron from mewithoutyou sang on 'memphis...', and man, he's really effeminate) underoath were better, but had to suffer the same settings and came off just ok. living sacrifice is a boring band to watch, but with more creative cameras and some crazy drums, they were cool for the first 30 seconds of the first song. stretch armstrong is the first band to play in darkness and with lighting effects(and whose style, sound and overall stage presence could have actually withstood the sun and lack of stage) (he's really the only guy who gets the crowd going out of all the bands. one band actaully told the audience to watch someone else! why did they tape this and release it again?) gets in two live songs and steals the show. zao was pretty cool, i mean, its zao. and i think someone actually spontaneously exploded in the adience. so thats always fun. i mean, i'd get pretty excited about seeing zao, though i don't know if i'd actually burst into flames.
the videos are for the most part pretty cool. i can't say i like the cd so much. this just wasn't the best of times for solid state.
beloved has a cool video, as does mewithoutyou, underoath, stretcharmstrong (thier first video is better and features cameos both from gumby and captian jack sparrow). norma jean has some cool songs, but "face:face" is the most annoying song ever recorded. and the video is cool for about 27 seconds, that is a whole 3 seconds less than i was interested in living sacrifices live preformance. they have since recorded "memphis..." (with new singer i think) and its a much cooler video and song.
interesting note, the directors of these videos hate trees, as demon hunter (oh yeah, cool video too) and mewithout you both feature people attacking trees with knives. (well, mewithout you is a reference to the giving tree kids book. i don't know what the heck the demon hunter video is all about, but it's entertaining)
for the price, this is a great deal. i just can't for the life of me figure out whats up with the live section.
oh! wait! i almost forgot! in underoaths video, they band actually starts attacking each other towards the end! if you watch carefully, one guy actually kicks the bassist while playing guitar! i don't know whats that's all about, but that is entertaining!
AWESOME Submitted on: 2004-03-20
This is the best Solid State collection ever. I call it collection because it comes with a dvd also!!!!! The dvd is awesome!!! There r a ton of videos on there. There is probably like 15 music videos plus a bunch of live performances! The cd is great 2, but the dvd is what makes this set just AWESOME!!! I got it for only $8.99 and i thought the dvd wouldn't be that much because the price is so low. But then i wuslike, "OMG!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!" So i deffinetly recommend this cd to anyone who like the other solid state cds or just like heavy rock music!!!
Dude...This is Good Stuff!!! Submitted on: 2003-10-28
Solid State 4 is a great cd/dvd, with artists like Demon Hunter, The Agony Scene, ZAO, Dead Poetic, mewithoutyou, and a bunch more. It has the new Demon Hunter video for Infected...it's a crazy music video, which in my eyes is good man...I would buy this just for the soul purpose of that video, but it also has 8 other videos and some live footage! There are 11 tracks on the cd and 13 Chapters or whatever on the dvd....BUY THIS....ITS SOME HARDCORE STUFF!!!...peace...
My 400th Review! Submitted on: 2003-10-23
This is the greatest compilation CD/DVD out there. Great CD, and even better a DVD with live preformances from ZAO and Living Sacrifice, and a music video from The Agony Scene. It's an incredibly good deal, and guess what it's cheap, and is MUCH better than Vol.s 1,2,and 3. So this is a definate must buy for anyone with taste, and for anyone who didn't have the previlage to see Living Sacrifice in concert. Must get this.
![This Is Solid State, Vol. 1 [CD on Demand] by Various Artists](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51why7Z4IRL._SL160_.jpg)
![This Is Solid State, Vol. 2 [CD on Demand] by Various Artists](http://www.artistopia.com/Images/MProItemSmall.gif)
4.5 For The Dvd 3.5 For The Cd (Where Has The Metal Gone?)
AWESOME