Review Summary: If only this were released 10 years ago...
Brian "Head" Welch has pretty much disappeared from the public eye since his Born Again Christianity and departure from Korn. However, the emergence of his new band, Love and Death, had me intrigued. Being someone that is often seen as stuck in 2001 I was hopeful when I heard about a new nu metal band fronted by the guy that contributed to Korn's best albums (their first 4). Needless to say I wasn't disappointed.
Lyrically the songs can seem a bit preachy to some and definitely angsty (but this is nu metal, what do you really expect?) but looking past that there is some great music to be heard on L&D's first release, the Chemicals EP. Paralyzed utilises some good atmospherics and has the classic nu metal chug and bounce in its riffwork. The cover of Devo's Whip It is catchy and appeals to the inner 14 year old, with a guest appearance from Matt Baird of Spoken. Chemicals is the weakest of the 3 actual songs but is another piece of fresh and catchy nu metal that is always nice to hear after the scene virtually died in the mid-00s and the quality dropped within the genre. After this are a couple of remixes by Har Meggido of the two original L&D tracks. The Paralyzed remix adds a little more to the atmospherics but isn't really needed on the EP, not is the Chemicals remix. More original content would be nice, but we're told there will be an album in 2013 so that's something to look forward to.
Overall this is a very good EP, and I'm very much looking forward to the album. Vocally, Head sounds a lot like Jonathan Davis on a good day so this could even sound like a new Korn release at times (albeit without the dubstep), and even better than a lot of the recent stuff the older band have been putting out. Perhaps Head really was the brains behind their best stuff. It's a shame this stuff won't get much attention though. If it were released 10 years ago during the peak of nu metal (when Limp Bizkit scored a UK Number One with Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle) and Slipknot topped the album charts with Iowa) then it would've done pretty well for itself but alas, that isn't the case.
