Short Bus (CD - 1995)

Additional personnel: Matt Drvenkar (vocals); Kevin Hanley (guitar); Mike Peffer (drums); Scott Kern (drums, vocals).

Producers: Richard Patrick, Brian Liesegang.

Engineers: Richard Patrick, Brian Liesegang.

Recorded in Los Angeles, California; Cleveland, Ohio; 22850 Center Ridge, Rocky River, Ohio; Pearl Sound, Canton, Michigan.

Personnel: Richard Patrick (vocals, guitar, synthesizer, drums, programming); Brian Liesegang (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, drums, programming); Scott Kern (vocals, drums); Matt Drvenkar (vocals); Kevin Hanley (guitar, electric guitar); Mike Peffer (drums).

Audio Mixer: Ben Grosse.

Recording information: Cleveland, OH; Los Angeles, CA; Pearl Sound Studios, Canton, MI; Rocky River, OH.

Photographer: Chris Beirne.

Unknown Contributor Role: Steve Thompson .

If you're missing a dose of Nine Inch Nails lately, you don't have to look further than this release for an excellent variation on Reznor's theme. Filter, who record using a mobile studio, are a two-man outfit (with a few helpful friends) who specialize in crunching guitar noise walls and filtered vocals. The attitude is the same relentless depression, the songs as furiously metallic. Filter wants you to know they're mad at the world, at people, at door-to-door preachers, at women, at heartbreak; meanwhile, they're depressed, and they'll make your ears bleed letting you know. Practiced, but heartless. ~ Steven McDonald

Filter's debut reflects post-Nine Inch Nails state-of-the-art industrial pop, which means Short Bus is indeed more pop than industrial. The noise accentuates the songs instead of driving them. Filter's sense of melody is slighter than Trent Reznor's, yet they have the skill to craft shifting dynamics into hooks, as in the single "Hey Man, Nice Shot." Not that they can keep it going throughout the entire record, but it still plays very well to the audience. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize