Divided We Stand

Album Review

Depending on the era, T.S.O.L. was either a hardcore punk band (circa the early '80s), or a heavy metal band (circa the late '80s). And despite the group never truly breaking through to the mainstream (the closest the group ever got was Steven Adler wearing a T.S.O.L. shirt in Guns N' Roses' video for "Sweet Child O' Mine"), they certainly carved a niche for themselves. After taking much of the '90s off, longtime leader Jack Grisham rounded up the troops once more come the early 21st century, releasing their first studio album in 11 years, 2001's Disappear. Proving that this was no one-off fluke, the group quickly issued a follow-up two years later, Divided We Stand. The 2003 T.S.O.L. edition sounds more akin to their earlier punk phase, and since they always had a thing for melody, tunes such as "Serious" and "Sex Not Violence" don't sound too out of step from modern-day pop-punk acts. But not all of Divided We Stand is punk rock fury, as evidenced by the tempo-cooler "Loaded." On Divided We Stand, T.S.O.L. still plays like they mean it — something that cannot be said for all veteran punk acts that reunite years later.