Review Summary: Cleveland-based industrial metal band returns with their thrid major release, keeping a familiar sound that fans of Mushroomhead will not be disappointed with.
Mushroomhead, the Cleveland-based Industrial metal band, returns with their third major release, “Savior Sorrow.” In the transition between their last release, “XIII,” and their newest album, there were a lot of changes. One of the singers left, a new singer filled his place, and they changed labels from Universal to Megaforce, but they still deliver a chest pounding performance without losing the classic sound contained in the older albums.
For anyone unfamiliar with the band, Mushroomhead is an eight piece industrial band formed in 1993. The band consists of two vocalists, Waylon and Jeffrey Nothing, Skinny on drums, guitarists Bronson and Gravy, Keyboardist Shmotz, Pig Benis on bass, and Samples provided by Stitch. The band is most well known for the masks donned during concerts, similar to bands like Mr. Bungle, Slipknot, Motograter, and GWAR.
The CD was an extremely wide variety of music, from guitar heavy songs to a couple of tracks dominated by samples and keyboard, the CD even closes with the song “Embrace the Ending,” which is entirely acoustic, something that Mushroomhead has not done up to this point.
The aggression created in Mushroomhead’s music is definitely conveyed well in this CD, especially in songs like “Damage Done” and “12 Hundred”. The album opens with a soft guitar and drum line with Waylon singing, then is immediately followed by screaming, double-bass drums, and a power chord infused riff that carries through the rest of the song. The rest of the CD follows suit with a good mix of soft music that creates a sense of foreboding, leading into loud, angry, and violent music.
They catch you completely off guard with the album closer, “Embrace the Ending.” The song begins with a short violin intro, and then smoothly transfers to a duel acoustic guitar background with Nothing and Waylon trading vocals. The song throws a bit of a curveball in that the entire album will start off with something soft and then follow it up with heavy riffs and violent lyrics, but the final song doesn’t follow this trend. Expecting the album to close with a song heavier than anything else will confuse you, since it seems as though the CD just drops, but this is tolerable because the final song still sounds amazing.
The band has never been a good one for solos, drum, guitar or otherwise, and that doesn’t change in this CD. In fact, it could even be said that the band doesn’t particularly consist of incredibly talented musicians, but the blend of music and samples, along with the duel lead singer shtick creates an original sound that can be appreciated by any fan of metal or industrial.
