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P.O.D.

P.O.D., initials standing for Payable On Death, is a rock band from San Diego, California. Formed in 1992, the band's line-up consists of vocalist Sonny Sandoval, drummer Wuv Bernardo, guitarist Marcos Curiel, and bassist Traa Daniels.

With their third studio album, The Fundamental Elements of Southtown, they achieved their initial mainstream success; the album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2000. Their following studio album, Satellite, continued the band's success with the hit singles, "Alive" and "Youth of the Nation", pushing it to go 3x platinum.

Band history

Early Years (1992–1998)

While the exact date of the formation of P.O.D. 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 and was asked by his cousin, Wuv Bernardo, to join P.O.D. as a way to keep his mind straight as mentioned on their DVD, Still Payin' Dues. 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. P.O.D. signed with a relatively unknown rock label, Rescue Records, and released three albums under the label between 1994 and 1997, Snuff the Punk, Brown and Payable on Death Live.

Shortly after the release of Payable on Death Live, Essential Records offered P.O.D. a $100,000 recording contract, but Sonny Sandoval spoke for them all when he politely but firmly told band manager Tim Cook to decline the offer because, “God has a bigger plan for P.O.D.” In 1998, A&R rep John Rubeli from Atlantic Records caught a show at The Roxy on the Sunset Strip, and the band was quickly signed to a major-label deal. P.O.D. soon released The Warriors EP, a tribute EP to their loyal fans and fan club leader Jordan Peter Douglas Orava, as a transitional album from Rescue Records to Atlantic Records.

Mainstream success (1999–2002)

P.O.D.'s third studio album, 1999's The Fundamental Elements of Southtown, spawned the hits "Southtown" and Total Request Live favorite "Rock the Party (Off the Hook)", which became their first video to reach #1. At a time after the 1999 album, "School of Hard Knocks" was featured on the soundtrack for Little Nicky. All three music videos endured 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 fourth studio album, Satellite. The album's first single, "Alive," went on to become one of MTV's and MTV2's top played videos of the year. The video's popularity, as well as the song's positive message, 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, "Boom" and "Satellite," also became quite popular. An addition, the concluding track of the album, "Portrait," received a number of awards and was Grammy nominated for Best Metal Performance in 2003. Satellite went on to become RIAA-certified triple platinum.

Marcos leaves the band; Payable on Death (2003–2006)

On February 19, 2003, guitarist Marcos Curiel left the band due to his side project, The Accident Experiment and "spiritual differences." However, Marcos argued that he was actually kicked out of the band. Sonny, Wuv and Traa were devastated about Curiel leaving, they considered breaking up the band, but decided to stay together and recruit another guitarist. Curiel was replaced by Jason Truby, former member of Christian metal band Living Sacrifice, and assisted with the recording of P.O.D.'s single "Sleeping Awake", from The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack. In an interview with Yahoo! Music, Sonny stated that Jason is the reason why the group is still together,

He did us a favor by helping us out with this song, and then once it was all said and done it kind of confirmed that maybe we should keep doing what we loved... and that's making music. So now he's helping us do that.

On November 4, 2003, P.O.D. released their fifth studio album, Payable on Death, which saw the group shift from their well known hard rock sound to a darker, more melodic sound. The album was hit with controversy due to its "occult" cover, which lead as many as 85% of Christian bookstores across the United States to ban the album. With the help of the album's hit single "Will You" and "Change the World", it went on to sell over 520,000 copies and was certified Gold. Sometime after the tsunami in Asia, many singers, musicians, and actors/actresses, including Sonny and Wuv, participated in the recording of, "Forever in Our Hearts", with all proceeds going to benefit the tsunami relief.

Testify (2006)

Testify was slated for a December 2005 release, but was pushed back to January 24, 2006. On November 15, 2005, P.O.D. released The Warriors EP, Volume 2, which featured demos from the upcoming album, to help build up the fans' anticipation for the pending January release. The album's first single, "Goodbye for Now", went on to become a #1 video on MTV's TRL, along with having a solid radio presence, it also became the band's unprecedented 4th number one video on Total Request Live. The second single off the album, "Lights Out" was a minor hit, but was featured as the "official theme song" to WWE's Survivor Series on November 27, 2005. In another contribution to WWE, they performed fellow San Diego native Rey Mysterio's theme song "Booyaka 619" at WrestleMania 22. To promote their latest album, P.O.D. went on a nationwide tour called the "Warriors Tour 2: Guilty by Association", which began in April, and included the bands Pillar, The Chariot and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster.

P.O.D. leaves Atlantic Records; Marcos returns

On August 11, 2006, P.O.D. announced in their online newsletter that they had left Atlantic Records. The newsletter stated: "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, which was released on November 21, 2006. They shot a music video for their single "Going In Blind", one of the two new songs they included in the tenth album, and they have been taking meetings with various record labels to begin working on new material for an album they hoped to release in mid 2007.

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. Marcos performed for the first time since his departure on the 2006 New Years Eve episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

INO Records, "When Angels & Serpents Dance" (2007–present)

On February 2, 2007 the band made a new record deal with INO Records.

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 frontman 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 & Serpents Dance.

On August 4, 2007, the band played at Angel Stadium of Anaheim's annual Harvest Crusade where they revealed a new song entitled "I'll Be Ready", originally thought to be entitled "When Babylon Come For I," for a crowd of 42,000, the largest number in attendance for the three day event.

The album cover was officially revealed on December 10, 2007.

The title track was released for free download on their site in January 2008

The first single 'Addicted was released on February 19th and did well on the Mainstream Rock chart peaking at number 30.

the album was released on April 8th 2008 entitled When Angels & Serpents Dance

On July 28, 2008, the group played a free public performance at the Orange County Choppers headquarters in Newburgh, NY, with OCC The Band opening.

The band also played on August 16, 2008 at the Angel Stadium of Anaheim's annual Harvest Crusade.

During September 2008 P.O.D played alongside Behind Crimson Eyes, Alter Bridge and Disturbed as part of the Music Is A Weapon tour 2008 in Australia.

Music style

Band members

Current members

Sonny Sandoval − lead vocals, lyricist (1992–present)
Wuv Bernardo − drums, percussion, backing vocals, rhythm guitar (live acoustic sets only) (1992–present)
Traa Daniels − bass guitar, backing vocals (1994–present)
Marcos Curiel − lead guitar, backing vocals (1992–2003, 2006–present)Former members
Gabe Portillo − bass (1992–1994)
Jason Truby − guitar, backing vocals (2003–2006)Live members
Tim Pacheco − percussion, keyboards (2006)
ODZ − guitar (2006)

Discography

EPs

Singles

Year	Title	Peak positions							Album
Year	Title	U.S.	U.S. Pop	U.S. Main	U.S. Mod	UK	AUS	SUI	Album
2000	"Southtown"	—	—	31	28	—	—	—	The Fundamental Elements of Southtown
	"Rock the Party (Off the Hook)"	—	—	25	27	—	—	—	The Fundamental Elements of Southtown
	"School of Hard Knocks"	—	—	—	38	—	—	—	Little Nicky soundtrack
2001	"Alive"	41	—	4	2	19	18	51	Satellite
2002	"Youth of the Nation"	28	36	6	1	36	17	16
	"Boom"	123	—	21	13	—	43	—
	"Satellite"	—	—	15	21	120	—	—
2003	"Sleeping Awake"	—	—	20	14	42	41	30	The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack''
2003	"Will You"	117	—	12	12	68	—	68	Payable on Death
2004	"Change the World"	—	—	32	38	—	—	—	Payable on Death
2006	"Goodbye for Now"	47	41	17	25	—	—	—	Testify
	"Lights Out"	—	—	30	—	—	—	—	Testify
	"Going in Blind"	—	—	35	—	—	—	—	Greatest Hits: The Atlantic Years
2008	"Addicted"	—	—	30	—	—	—	—	When Angels & Serpents Dance
2008	"Shine With Me"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	When Angels & Serpents Dance
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or have yet to chart.