Swiping its title from progressive hip-hoppers the Coup (who pilfered it from Abbie Hoffman's counterculture call to arms), Steal This Album! features Toxicity outtakes from 2001 and unreleased gems that date back to 1995. The frantic opening number, "Chic N' Stu," is an anti-marketing screed that finds vocalist Serj Tankian vomiting up a literal grocery list of complaints, insisting in the end, Advertising causes me therapy. "Boom" proffers a shotgun marriage of political punk and machine-gun metal that doesn't sound remotely contrived -- the work of a group comfortable with a spectrum of influences that ranges from Alice in Chains to Noam Chomsky. Throughout Steal, the SoCal quartet displays originality, insight and noncontrived anger, traits its modern metal peers seldom demonstrate.
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