** (hed)p.e.

Broke

(Volcano/Jive)

This is rap metal at its ugliest, from the panhandler on the album cover to the band's dirty stew of hip-hop beats and Bizkit-fed aggression. Vocalist Jahred goes for broke on every song, channeling his negative energy into recurring bouts of hedonism and self-hatred. On "Pac Bell," he delivers a stream of paranoid verses over a big bass rumble, rivaling Eminem in both sadness and anger. He drags a few other new-metal vocal standouts into the fray on "Feel Good," which surges along on the choice outbursts of Kittie's Morgan Lander (screaming) and System of a Down's Serj Tankian (howling). Jahred overcomes depression the same way most other new-metallers do, drinking, fighting, and screwing his way into oblivion. He's not as arty about it as Fred Durst -- he finds inspiration in the lowdown thrills of dancehall, and he turns the outrageously explicit "Boom (How You Like That)" into a 2 Live Crew-style sex romp. But (hed)p.e. miss the mark when they ditch the rage in favor of played-out hooks. "Bartender," an amusing vignette of dive-bar culture, is cheapened by its familiar Motown chorus, and "Crazy Legs" is yet another pointless remake of the rap standard "La Di Da Di."

-- Sean Richardson