P.O.D. believes you can go home again. After tussling with Christian retailers over the cover of its last studio album, 2003’s “Payable on Death,” the hard rock band will once again try to appeal to their mainstream and Christian audiences with its fourth full-length Atlantic effort, out this week.
For “Testify,” P.O.D. teamed with superstar producer Glen Ballard. According to drummer Wuv, the band wanted to work with Ballard on its previous album, but their schedules never aligned. This time, P.O.D. began recording with someone else, but after six months decided to approach Ballard again.
“We gave him a call again to see if he had time to listen to some songs we were recording,” Wuv recalls. “Once he heard, he said he was in.” The songs for “Testify” were close to completion, and Wuv says the band was anxious to get Ballard’s take on the material. “It was a big deal to hear someone like Glen’s opinion coming from all the different backgrounds that he’s worked with, from Michael Jackson to No Doubt to Aerosmith.”
Wuv credits Ballard with helping the band craft a more “mature” effort. “We’ve always done reggae music and had the hip-hop elements. We’ve always kept it kind of heavy rock, but I think something that’s going to be obvious just from the band standpoint is that the music sounds more mature for us,” Wuv says.
Guests on “Testify” include Hasidic reggae artist Matisyahu, who joins the band on “Roots in Stereo” and “Strength of My Life.” Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. and Sick Jacken from Los Angeles duo the Psycho Realm contribute to “On the Grind.”
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