Musical Style
Grade 8 features a pummeling rap metal style with thunderous, staccato riffing in B tuning and harshly delivered rapping. Songs contain chugging double bass as well as moody, atmospheric sections. Comparable to Machine Head's Burning Red, the album's style is largely characteristic of nu metal which had faded from mainstream popularity by 2003. Frontman Dustin Tooker explained, "It’s just an honest expression of how we feel. We wrote a record we’re huge fans of, just being music fans."
Lyrically, Grade 8 contains aggressive prose of confrontation and perseverance. This is reflected in the liner notes photography which portrays various elements of a boxing ring in a dark and gritty fashion.
A cover of Rare Earth's 1971 hit "I Just Want to Celebrate" was also featured on Grade 8 as interpreted in their heavy, metallic fashion. It includes an additional rapped verse, similar to 3rd Strike's rendition of "Paranoid" released almost a year prior.
Read more about this topic: Grade 8 (album)
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