 Felons And Revolutionaries |Epic, 1999| 
1. Pig Society, 2. Debonaire, 3. Everything Sucks, 4. Sick, 5. Kimberly's Ghost, 6. Spine For You, 7. One Fix, 8. (Untitled), 9. Intervention, 10. America the Pitiful, 11. Sh*T Life, 12. Wake Up, 13. I Am Nothing
This is the only Dope album that represents industrial rock/metal values, but it doesn't surprise me since it was recorded in the industrial rock music friendly 90’s. It is filled with thirteen short, aggressive and time resistant songs.
Music on this album fortunately isn't soft or depressive. "Debonaire" as well as "Everything Sucks" belong among the best songs on the album. "Sick" is an industrial metal track reminiscent to the sound of Bile, Schnitt Acht and N17, but "Kimberly's Ghost" and "One Fix" could be compared to Gravity Kills tracks, although kept in much heavier settings. Other songs like "Spine For You", "Fuck The Police", "America The Pitful" and "I Am Nothing" should satisfy fans of Marilyn Manson’s music who are familiar with his songs and should find enough associations to easily compare it to his music.
Dope seems to enjoy making cover songs and actually, they turn out fairly interesting (covers for ‘People Are People’ and ‘Rebel Yell’ were included to the next albums of Dope). In fact, this album finishes with a cover of the famous "You Spin Me Round" originally recorded by Dead Or Alive, whose sexy leader Mister Pete Burns was shocking by identifying himself with transvestites in 1985 and who has become a 50 year old Miss Burns these days. Sex changes aren't anything strange on the artistic scene, for instance, another man who decided to go ahead with the operation was Genesis P-Orridge from an industrial-art project known as Throbbing Gristle, however this issue is a topic for another article.
Dope used a lot of samplers for the recording of this album for the purpose of emulating the industrial rock sound. Unfortunately, the media (newspapers, magazines, TV etc.) paid little attention to the band, and with times changing had not wanted to verify their opinions, so Dope is still categorized as industrial rock, while their music isn’t pure industrial rock at all, but because the band opened for nu metal touring acts right after the release of their debut album, the typecast stuck. It's also easy to notice that Dope often sold guitar driven music without loosing sight of their initial goals, making simple, aggressive tunes based on basic metal musical instruments like guitar, bass, drums and vocals.
Felons And Revolutionaries is almost eleven years old, but because its music had been built upon the guitars, it doesn’t sound old and dated. The music on this album still sounds fresh, inviting some head-banging and the release of aggression. Moreover, these high energy songs would sound great live again. This is a timeless album indeed, and definitely worth listening to.
(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz, 07/22/2010. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)
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