And Smallsville will never be the same again after this circus leaves
town. Here you got this traveling sideshow of freaks come together to
wreak horror and havoc on the world and with this crude exhibit aptly
titled "XX." But don't ask me why, I think the curtain is not only drawn,
but ripped completely off, enveloping a throng of awed if not terrified
onlookers. Okay, we're getting too far ahead here, but Mushroomhead is in
fact all about the stage and merging the vaudevillian style of
yesteryear with presumably something far beyond the limits of the law..
Their music? Interesting to say the least. Now based solely on their
appearance it's gonna be another Slipknot deal -- you got these eight
weirdoes donning masks and other assorted disguises and creepy images
and right off I'm thinking, "fuck, not again!" They're different though
(now that's the pot calling the kettle black and then some!), and in
spite of my prejudice early on -- you see, I don't like Slipknot and have
grown tired of the Nu-Metal fad that's lived way past its due
date -- Mushroomhead's got about a million and one different elements
working for it, not always in unison, but definitely intriguing and
always offbeat. I'm willing to bet the name "Mushroomhead" either was
derived from a bad B-movie sketch only the hardest of the core would
know about, or the person or persons at the root of the band featured a
seriously stacked coif.
These guys come at ya from every angle and what
makes them different from the wealth of Rap/Metal crossover specialists
is the fact they incorporate about eighteen different styles -- and tales
of the unexpected was never put to better use -- from song to song that
catch you completely off guard to the point you have to sit and listen
to hear how the whole thing plays out. One moment we're peeling
out with speed-Metal style riffs, the next, haunting industrialized
overtones dominate the mood. Then, before you can blink, there's an odd
piano melody here or transfixed gothic presence there and as you wonder
how the second coming of Faith No More came about without noticing,
you're kinda digging it.
So yes we're dealing with another of these
genre-slicing groups crossing borders, crossing fingers, crossing bows
and whatever the Hell else they can lap up from yesterday's leftovers
but the fact, and granted there's eight of 'em for a reason, they seem
fairly well skilled in the art -- Some art -- of a yet to be determined
nature, in a deceptive and sometimes dissonant sort of way. Watch for
'em in the future, cause let's face it, with a name like that, they ain't
gonna exactly fall through the cracks.
