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Richard Patrick has had enough.

The mastermind behind Filter's fourth album, Anthems for the Damned, its first in five years since The Amalgamut, is what Patrick calls his "howl in the night," a harsh indictment of civilization that doesn't exclude himself from its vision of a world falling apart.

Featuring such collaborators as guitarist/songwriter John 5 (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie), guitarist Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit) and drummer Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails, Guns N' Roses, the Vandals), Anthems for the Damned was produced by Pulse Recording's Josh Abraham (Slayer, 30 Seconds to Mars, Velvet Revolver, Staind, Courtney Love).

The album traces Patrick's own anger and shame with the state of things, from the intense alternative industrial blast of "The Take," "What's Next" and "Hatred is Contagious," through the stunned acceptance and ironic sarcasm of the first single, "Soldiers of Misfortune," the ultimate resignation of "Kill the Day" and "Lie After Lie" to the tentative hope expressed by "Only You" and the ambient soundscape of the closing "Can Stop This."

"It's about the embarrassment of being a human in the face of the awesome power of nature," he explains. "To see what we're doing to the planet and each other. I'm ashamed about the shape of the world we're leaving to our children. And I'm not excusing myself either. I'm just asking, 'Why can't we get it right?'"

Patrick calls the soaring anthem "Soldiers of Misfortune," with its U2/Bowie flavor and stacked backdrop of buzzing electric guitars, a 'sardonic anti-war/pro-troops song." The first-person narrative was inspired by a letter from a Filter fan who had enlisted in the Army reserves to get his college tuition paid; in his final year of college, he was shipped off to Iraq where he died from a rocket attack and small arms fire after just a few days of duty. And while the story might be downbeat, the music is as accessible as such Patrick radio hits as "Hey Man, Nice Shot" (from its 1995 debut Short Bus) or the Top 15 pop smash, "Take a Picture" (from 1999's Title of Record).

"I set out to capture the senselessness of his situation," says Patrick. "The bleakness of the lyrics plays off against the optimism of the chord progression."

That combination of classic-rock melodies and industrial heavy metal has been part of Patrick's music from the very start, when the Ohio native first shared his musical theories with one-time Nine Inch Nails bandmate Trent Reznor.

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