P.O.D.

Right around the Millennium, it was a good time for rock and roll music. The early 2000’s saw a trend of hybrid bands that mixed hardcore, punk, hip hop, and grunge. Nu Metal, or Rapcore if you will, was melodic. Like Van Halen in years prior, this was metal you could sing along to, but minus the ‘Eddie effect.’ Electric guitars still drove this vehicle, but the evolution brought hardcore’s over-amplified distortion to punk’s absence of the kinds of guitar soloing that had defined a prior generation and their rock and roll heroes.

At the forefront of Nu Metal were groups such as Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Linkin Park, System of a Down, Limp Bizkit, and a San Diego band that went from playing Chula Vista keggers to the big leagues: P.O.D.

Payable on Death’s founding members first made noise in 1991, playing metal covers. They were guitarist Marcos Curiel and drummer Noah (Wuv) Bernardo. They jammed in a funky practice facility off Highland Avenue in National City where soundproofed studios rented by the hour. Bernardo’s cousin Sonny Sandoval eventually came in on vocals, and Gabe Portillo played bass. When he left the band, he was replaced by Mark (Traa) Daniels.

It was a family affair. Bernardo’s father owned P.O.D.’s first record label, and for a time he managed the young band. By the late 1990’s, P.O.D. was in hot rotation on MTV. Fan reactions were positive. But it wasn’t until album number four, Satellite, that the P.O.D. brand was made. You could hardly turn on rock radio and not hear their hits “Alive,” and later, “Youth of the Nation.” Satellite would prove to be P.O.D.’s defining moment.

So, what has the thrice-Grammy-nominated band done for you lately? Tastes change, markets shift. But the original P.O.D. is still at it, recording and touring, even if the show they front now is a tribute to past glory.