Torture Tunes

ALBUMS UNDER REVIEW

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

There are three things you don’t do. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit in the wind and you don’t FUCK with Mushroomhead. Formed in 1993, the Cleveland Ohio group has just released their 8th album, The Righteous & the Butterfly. And this is the album Mushroomhead fans have been waiting for and people unfamiliar with the band need to quickly become familiar with.

Call them Industrial, call them Nu-metal or call them shock rock, labels don’t matter with this band, they are simply, straight up, hard hitting, indie artists that always have and always will do things their way. And their new album is no exception. At times its lyrics are a beautiful work of tragic art, while at other times it’s an ugly abyss of rage. But no matter the side of the spectrum they’re singing from, it is always sung with a guttural truth. You feel the pain, you feel the sadness and most of all you feel the anger and the rage.

Though the band has gone through multiple lineup changes, they have a solid group of musicians whose talent is evident in every track. And Mushroomhead fans around the world have often debated was the band better off with J Mann or Waylon sharing vocal duties with Jeffery Nothing. Well now fans get the best of both worlds as all three men sing on this album - after nearly 10 years away from the band J Mann brings his vocal style back to the band’s sound. Together, the three of them are a match made in metal heaven.

But now it is time to talk about the elephant in the room. There is one negative thing about this album, which keeps it from being a contender for album of the year. And that is the cover of Adele’s “Rumor Has It.” For anyone familiar with their cover of Seal’s “Crazy” off of their album XIII, you may be even more disappointed by this track, because just as good as that one was, this one is twice as bad. Thankfully this is where anything negative, ends.

The “Righteous” half of the album’s title is a reference to the band’s original guitarist, JJ Righteous, who died a few years back, while the “Butterfly” is a dedication to the memory of the drummer’s wife who also recently passed. And though these men are filled with so much rage and anger, this beautiful title really shows that every monster has a heart and this group wears their emotions on their sleeves for the entire world to see and judge.

So judge for yourself and pick this album up. It is a recommendation for every metal fan.

Album highlights: “We Are the Truth,” “Devils Be Damned” and “Querty.”

Ryan Andrews, HMS

Older reviews