This week, we will be going back to the early 2000s when alternative hard rock groups were the next big thing, when bands like Seether, Staind, Papa Roach and so forth hit it big time. One of the lesser known bands from that era is Trust Company.
Trust Company uses emotional, heartfelt lyrics with a truly visceral delivery that blends harder hardcore styles and softer rock styles to create a balance every rocker can enjoy.

You are sure to find impeccable choruses, meaningful lyrics, crunching distorted guitars and pummeling drums on these tracks.
Trust Company consisted of Kevin Palmer – lead vocals, rhythm guitar; James Fukai – lead guitar, backing vocals; Jason Singleton – drums, backing vocals and Wes Cobb – bass, backing vocals.

Honourable Mentions: ‘Hover’, ‘Finally’ and ‘Closer’.

5. Drop to Zero
This is probably one of the more aggressive tracks from Trust Company. It looks at themes of loneliness and despair from the negativity in the world. This is a candid, honest look at these feelings of sadness in this hard-hitting track.
The opening line, ‘Drop, drop to Zero’, will let you sit up and take notice.
‘I feel boxed in, (it’s happening again) I’m trapped inside, (it’s happening again). Feels like the world’s closing in (it’s happening again) and there’s nowhere to hide.’
Palmer is at his aggressive best with soft-spoken lyrics and louder screamed vocals to showcase the various emotions involved.
This fantastic track takes an intense look into some raw introspection.

4. The Fear
This is one of Trust Company’s slower tracks. It looks at how inhibiting fear can be, and the need to find a way out through believing and having faith in a better hope.
The chorus is probably one of the band’s catchiest and most pop-like but it works perfectly to create an atmosphere of positivity.
The lead guitar from Fukai is on point as he plays some well-timed, orchestrated licks to add to the overall value of this number. ‘Lead me from the fear and I won’t leave you here.
There’s a way out.
There’s a way out. There’s a way from here believe,’ sings Palmer to add a brilliant meaning to the track: ‘I feel weak, I’m slowly losing touch with what is left in me. Take me in. I’m yours again.’

3. Falling Apart
The muted chugging in this opener creates the perfect foil for Fukai’s electric guitar to take over.
Then the usual, softer verses from the melodic Palmer further lay the foundation about broken relationships on this track.
The verses work perfectly with its softer sonic element creating a dream-like feel.
This is juxtaposed with the clear chorus that draws the listener into the singer’s emotive lyrics: ‘I shut it away I keep it in me. Is this what it takes to keep me alive?
So you take me and you break me and you see I’m falling apart. Complicate me and forsake me, you push me out so far; there’s no other feeling.’
The song focuses on how a disjointed relationship can create a feeling of numbness and insecurity, and the eventual healing process.

2. Deeper Into You
The soft cymbal bell-striking from Singleton combined with a superb electric lead from Fukai start this fantastic track off on the best possible note.
Palmer is once again at his best with his stop-start vocal delivery that works perfectly in the verses.
You can distinctly hear the kind of sound that dominated the rock charts in the early 2000s.
To this day, it continues to be quite a pleasant experience with melody being king in this regard.
The beautiful chorus showcases the longing for love, after crossing the line one too many times for the wrong person: ‘I feel it eating at me, while you still drown me And cross the line over and over again. Now I’m falling, I’m falling now cause of you. Now I’m falling, deeper into you.’

1. Downfall
This is one of the better-known tracks from Trust Company.
It focuses on how fear and anxiety can get a hold of you and the need to escape its clutches.
It also looks at how it can take you on a downward spiral and the inward struggle to get out of those circumstances.
‘Downfall’ is a hard-hitting track with a couple of screams and huge riffs, combined with a stellar chorus to round things off. ‘Fear in me so deep it gets the best of me, In the fear I fall, here it comes face to face with me.
Here I stand, hold back so no one can see.
I feel these wounds, step down.’
Listen carefully to the brilliant, inventive bridge driven forward with Cobb’s bass line.
The chorus: ‘I’m not breaking, down, can I break away push me away, make me fall, just to see another side of me,’ illustrates the to and fro involved in a disjointed relationship and how people who put you down can negatively affect your thinking.