Mushroomhead
“XIII”
Universal Records
It can be tough trying to classify a band when it mixes so many elements to its sound. Such is the problem with Mushroomhead, relative newcomers to the national metal scene. What to call the band’s sound? Hard rock with a techno edge? Even that seems too confining, although it’s clear they’re firmly grounded with at least one foot in the metal scene.
Starting out, Mushroomhead was more of an underground sensation, developing a reputation off the strength of its live show. The band broke nationally in 2001 with the release of “XX,” an album which featured re-mixed material from Mushroomhead’s hard-to-find independent releases: “Mushroomhead”(1993), “Superbuik”(1996) and “M3″(1999). The band has been compared to everything from Faith No More (musically) to Slipknot (both bands feature mask-wearing jumpsuit clad members — that’s where the similarities end in this case), but the band has managed to create a unique enough sound that is easily recognizable: dualing vocals, chunky bass riffs, down-tuned guitars, plodding drums, samples and interesting orchestration. If you had to sum it all up in one word: Murky.
So, does “XIII” do anything to further the legacy of Mushroomhead? Whereas “XX” was really hard to digest (covering such a large expanse of the band’s catelogue — the album lacked a certain focus on it’s own but served as a nice introduction to the band), “XIII” features all new, fresh music.
Mushroomhead’s unique sound comes from a variety of elements: the vocal combination of J Mann and Jeffrey Nothing, drummer Skinny playing off of Pig Benis’ wicked bass lines, Shmotz on keyboards, guitarists Gravy and Bronson with Stitch rounding out the amalgam with samples.
“XIII” kicks off with “Kill Tomorrow.” The song has some great, fast-paced rhythm during the verses with the bass and drums sounding better than ever, but the choruses slow down to the familiar Mushroomhead sound.
The disc’s strongest track, “Sun Doesn’t Rise” was, I assume, the first single off the disc, and is reminiscent of “Solitaire/Unraveling,” the big hit off the last album. The vocals are pretty strong, the drumming is great during the bridge, and overall the song exhudes a creepy vide which is perfectly suited to the band.
“Mother Machine Gun” starts off with an interesting piano and drum piece before the sludgy guitars kick in. This song is a perfect microcosm for the album as a whole: it starts off real promising but falls back to the safe, usual sound for the band, and comes off lacking in some fashion. Still, the guitar riffs in this song are great.
On “Nowhere to Go” the band finally slows down, this song has a ballad feel, but still features an edgey guitar sound to it — like, you’re not quiet sure if the song is going to tear apart at a point (in a good way), and by the time the full band florishes mid-way through, it’s like a well-deserved payoff.
“Becoming Cold” seems like a write-off track. At this point on the disc, the similar-sounding songs start to blend together. You start to feel like you’ve already listened to the song before it really gets going.
“One More Day” opens up with piano too, but the piano stays throughout the song which creates a great atmosphere (with the vocals and programming) for what I assume is a spurned-love song with lyrics like “You take me higher than the lowest place.”
Benis’ bass work on “The Dream is Over” is fantastic, grinding under the vocals like a steamroller and giving the track a feel of something like a song off Coal Chamber’s first album. The fast paced “The War Inside” follows, giving a a nice one/two punch mid-way through the disc. I wonder if the album would have been better off leading off with these two tracks, and then blending into a slower track.
“Almost Gone” has a nice Corrosion of Conformity vibe to it. Vocally, the COC vibe popped up slightly in “Nowhere to Go” first, but here it’s the vocals and the general feel of the music — the sludgey guitars and bass and bluesy riffs — that almost make this sound unlike anything else the band is doing. (This is personally, my favorite track.)
From here the album just sort of plows on — each song has nice little moments but aren’t too great: “Eternal” features some great attacking bass lines and drum progressions on it; “Our Own Way” is a powerful track ending with a constant scream of “Arise” and piano; “Destroy the World Around Me” just seems too long and overblown clocking in at over 8 minutes.
The last track, “Thirteen,” begins as an instrumental, but turns into a heavy cover of Seal’s “Crazy.” I could recognize the song, and never liked it before — but I don’t mind it so much here. If you never recognized it as a cover, it would sound like a good Mushroomhead track. Instead, it’s a hard twist on a mellow song. As far as covers go, it’s not bad, and the band puts its stamp on it.
