This came out in 1998 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
One man’s metal is another man’s punk rock.
Case in point: Huntington Beach, Calif.’s Straight Faced. On their incendiary third album Conditioned, the twin-guitar interplay, complex arrangements and laryngitic vocals scream heavy metal. But the brain-smashing tempos, street-cred lyrics and noisy, atonal flourishes yell punk. Who’s right? Who cares? Let’s just call it the best of both worlds and play it again.
