This article is about the California metal band. For other uses, see
POD.
P.O.D. is a six-time Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum rock band from San Diego, California. The initials stand for Payable On
Death, referring to the death of Jesus Christ.
Band history
Early Years
While the exact date of the formation of this Christian band is unknown, friends Marcos
Curiel and Wuv Bernardo engaged in jam
sessions in a band called Eschatos, without a vocalist sometime in the early 1990s. After his mother's fatal illness,
Sonny Sandoval converted to Christianity; he joined
P.O.D. in late 1991 or early 1992. Traa Daniels joined the band in 1994 when they needed a
bassist for a concert, to replace Gabe Portillo, who appeared in
the original demo tape of 1992-1993. P.O.D. signed with a relatively unknown Christian label, Rescue Records, and released albums
under the label between 1994 and 1997, Snuff the Punk and Brown. In 1997, they released an album of live recordings from the Tomfest festival. In 1998, they signed with Atlantic Records, which
brought the mass-media coverage that self-production would not bring.
Prior to the release of The Fundamental Elements of
Southtown, P.O.D. released The Warriors EP, a tribute EP to their loyal fans. This limited edition CD has only 30,000 copies in print and was licensed by
Atlantic Records and distributed by Tooth
& Nail Records.
Mainstream success
P.O.D.'s August 24, 1999 mainstream the fifth
album, The Fundamental Elements of
Southtown, spawned the hits "Southtown" and Total Request Live
favorite "Rock the Party (Off the Hook)". At a time after the 2000 album, "School of Hard
Knocks" was featured on the soundtrack for Little Nicky. All three
music videos enjoyed heavy play on MTV2 and the songs were
rock radio hits. The album went on to become RIAA certified platinum.
In 2001, on the same day as the September 11, 2001 attacks, P.O.D.
released their sixth studio album, Satellite. The album's first single,
"Alive", already a rock radio hit, went on to become one of MTV's and MTV2's #1 played video of the year. The video's popularity, as well as the song's positive messages to be grateful
for life, helped the song become a huge pop radio hit.
The album's second single, "Youth of the Nation", was influenced in part by the
school shootings at Santana High School, Columbine High School and Granite Hills High School. The 2002 singles "Satellite" also became
very popular. Also, the concluding track of the album, "Portrait" received a number of awards including a Grammy nomination for
Best Metal Performance in 2002. The album went on to become RIAA-certified triple platinum.
In January 17, 2003, P.O.D. starts a new song
called "Boom" from the album Satellite.
In the early 2000s P.O.D. played three times at Ozzfest, the heavy metal extravaganza that
has now performed before 3.5 million fans across the U.S., with the band featured on the Ozzfest Main Stage in 2002. Some
Christian music fans derided the band for bringing its Christian message to a venue also featuring some bands who seemed to
support (at least on an aesthetic level) the forces of darkness; others argued that was precisely the point.
Marcos leaves the band
In November 4, 2003, guitarist Marcos Curiel left
the band due to his side project, The Accident Experiment and "spiritual
differences." However, Marcos claimed that he was actually kicked out of the band (see his
article). Curiel was replaced by Jason Truby, former member of Christian
thrash/death metal band Living Sacrifice. In the
same year they released their third mainstream and seventh album overall, Payable on
Death. This album went on to sell over 1,000,000 copies worldwide. It featured the hits "Will You" and "Change the World". Also in 2003 Sonny recorded a song with singer songwriter
Anastacia, a socially powerful track called I Do.
In 2003, the band's song "Sleeping Awake" was featured in the movie The Matrix Reloaded. A music video was made for the song
that was based off the same film. Marcos was not included as this was their first major hit with new guitarist Jason Truby.
In 2003, the band's song "Boom" was featured in the documentary Ozzfest 2003, and in 2004, in
the documentary .
Sometime after the tsunami in Asia, many singers, musicians, and actors/actresses recorded a song called "Forever in Our Hearts". It is only obtainable on iTunes, and features many well known artists including Sonny
and Wuv from P.O.D. All proceeds from this song go to help with the tsunami relief.
On November 15, 2005, P.O.D. released
The Warriors EP, Volume 2 as a tribute to their fans. It features some
demos from their eighth album Testify, as well as two live tracks, two b-sides,
and a cover version of the 1980s Payola$ reggae hit, "Eyes of a Stranger". It was produced by Travis Wyrick.
Marcos himself eventually rejoined the band in December 2006.
New Album in 2006
Testify was slated for a December 2005 release, but was pushed back to
January 24, 2006. The first single released from the
ninth album was "Goodbye for Now", with another new song called
"Lights Out" being featured as the "official theme song" to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s Survivor
Series 2005 event in November 2005. The single "Goodbye For Now" went on to become a #1 video on MTV's TRL along with
having a solid radio presence. This was the band's unprecedented 4th number one video on Total Request Live.
In another contribution to WWE, the band's single, "Boom", was used as the opening theme for WWE's return show of
WWE Saturday Night's Main Event and at WrestleMania 22 they performed fellow San Diego native Rey
Mysterio's theme song "Booyaka 619". Mysterio debuted the studio recording of this song as his entrance theme on the May 5
edition of SmackDown!.
P.O.D.'s hits, "Alive" and "Boom" have also been sports anthems used by ESPN and other sporting
events. P.O.D. performed live on national network television for the 2006 New Year celebration in Times Square.
P.O.D. have wrapped up their American tour called the "Warriors Tour 2: Guilty by Association" which began in April, to
promote their latest album. Bands on the bill included Christian rockers Pillar, Christian
metalcore band The Chariot, and Christian/Southern metalers Maylene and the Sons of Disaster.
P.O.D. leaves Atlantic Records
On August 11, 2006, P.O.D. announced in their online
newsletter that they have left Atlantic Records. The newsletter reads: "P.O.D. have
left Atlantic Records. We’ve been proud to be Atlantic Recording Artists, but it’s not the same place anymore. For most of our
stay, we were blessed by a staff that was gracious towards our vision, faith, and love of music.... resulting in more than
7-million records sold. It’s time to dream again with a new staff and we leave with grateful hearts. By the people, FOR the
people - P.O.D. - Aug. 2006"
On September 16, 2006, P.O.D. announced that they have
teamed up with Rhino Records to release a greatest
hits record simply titled, Greatest Hits: The Atlantic
Years. They have shot a music video for "Going In Blind", one of the two new songs they included in the tenth album,
recently in Los Angeles. The collection was released on November 21, 2006. They also mentioned that they have been taking meetings with various record labels, and are working
on new material for an album they hope to release in mid 2007. They also performed on the recent New Years Eve episode of
Jimmy Kimmel Live.
In a statement made by the band's manager on their MySpace page, it was officially announced,
on December 30, 2006, that Jason
Truby had left the band. They had said God worked it out because Jason decided to leave the band the same day Marcos asked
to rejoin. [1]
Recent performances
P.O.D. has recently recorded an inspiring song for fans of the National Football League's San Diego Chargers, which debuted in
late December 2006, and has since become popular in the San Diego area, being played at Chargers games, and performed live by the
band at the Chargers-Patriots playoff game in 2007.
On February 2, 2007 the band made a new record deal with
Columbia Records, and announced their next album would be coming out late Summer
2007.
On May 13, 2007 the band appeared on Carlos Mencia's show on Comedy Central, Mind of Mencia, when Carlos premiered his new music video for the song "Beaner Man". The band played the
instruments and screamed the chorus, while Carlos rapped the lyrics and wore dreadlocks in parody of front man of the band Sonny
Sandoval.
On June 1, 2007, at the ROCKBOX in San Diego, the band performed
and revealed a new song entitled "Condescending", along with another new song performed on June
16, 2007, at the Journeys Backyard BBQ tour entitled "Addicted". They also revealed the
title of their new album to be When Angels and Serpents Dance.
On June 16, 2007 the band performed at the Backyard BBQ at Cool
Springs Galleria in Nashville,TN and Sonny revealed new songs and he appeared with his dreads shaved off for the first time.
On August 4, 2007 the band played at Angel Stadium of Anaheim's annual Harvest Crusade for
a crowd of 42,000, the largest number in attendance for the three day event.
Band members
Current
Former
Live
Discography
-
Singles
External links
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