Review Summary: The Californian funky nu-metal titans get down and groovy on their one, and unfortunately only, full length album.
It was 1998 and Snot were enjoying their first taste off success with a worthy stint at Ozzfest and their first full length album,
Get Some, getting its due praise despite its slumping album sales the year before. In December of that year, the band found themselves at a dead end with the stunning news of their lead singer Lynn Strait killed in a car/ truck collision along with Strait’s dog/ band mascot, Dobbs (who’s cute face, balancing a lemon on his nose, graces the front cover of
Get Some). Soon after this grave news, the band disbanded and went on to do other side projects within the nu-metal community (Amen, Sevendust, and Soulfly to name a few). This was a career that was about to take off and was cut tragically short by the lose of their lead singer, unfortunately leading to Snot being swept under the carpet until this year when Snot decided to reform again. The worst thing about this is that they have hired a new lead singer who will never (or anyone for that matter) could ever fill the shoes of what Lynn Strait was as a keystone to the entire band. So you’re probably asking yourself, why dwell on the past and relate it to the present. What Snot were up to on this album was far beyond anything that anyone could have been imagined; all the while taking nu-metal in a direction that had so much life and colour to it.
Get Some has to be one of the catchiest nu-metal albums ever and it’s all because of its spastic, funky, and simply downright playful nature that most nu-metal bands never dreamt of ever doing. Opener ‘Snot’ shoots off its humourous intro of “*** the record and *** the people” into a funky wah-wah headtrip that simply leads into a face ripping riff that would make the lot of you go bananas. As the bass dominated verses creep and crawl between these spastic riffs, the listener will probably start to think they understand what’s happening. This is not the case as each and every song features so much diversity; all crammed together into fifteen songs that will take you on a soulful metal journey and make you bob your head in pure enjoyment. ‘Stoopid’s intro, consisting of wah-wah pedal clean chords and muted string, up and down strokes might make you want to just pick up a beer and smoke a huge doobie while rocking hard to the excellent guitar and bass lines that seem to just have groove written all over them. ‘Joy Ride’ is pretty self explanatory leading in with a car revving bass line that follows with a rather tight punk vibe that could make the party in your house explode into a frenzy (sadly ending in a car crash noise). ‘Deadfall’ follows suit, except splicing in a great barnyard boogie down, complete with a banjo and totally throwing the listener (and myself) completely off the trail. ‘Tecato’ being the highlight of the entire album focuses on a drum driven groove and showcasing some of the heaviest thuds on the album through intense palm muted riffing and exploding into pure mayhem. Clean groovy interludes are used quite frequently on this album to break up some of the funky chaos; the best being ‘Get Some Keez’, which I can’t help but think is the perfect song to get laid to.
Sure, I could go on all day about how great the music is, but like most funk and soul out there, Snot relies heavily on the singer for that soulful edge that the instruments simply can’t achieve. Lynn Strait is essentially the glue that holds all the pieces together through his witty lyrics and a strong vocal delivery, ranging between a ‘punk boy done bad’ and a remarkable clean singer (when he rarely does sing). Strait is straight up (no pun intended) one of the best lead vocalists in the history of nu-metal and its amazing that it only took him one album to prove this. Ranting and raving in cuts like ‘Snot’, ‘I Jus’ Lie’ and ‘My Balls’, he does more then just write lyrics about hard times and wallowing in his own self pity. Instead, we have some humour, intelligence; making his lyrics just downright entertaining, all the while touching on issues such as drugs, alcoholism, and the life of being in a band. You can most certainly parallel these lyrics to other typical nu-metal bands, but Strait just has a hook for every soulful line he projects. Highlight lyric of the album:
”MY BALLS, YOUR CHIN”, Strait proclaims on the aptly titled ‘My Balls’.
So we are left here in 2008; Tommy Vext is the new lead singer and will undoubtedly disgrace any integrity Lynn Strait ever had with this band (not to mention he was horrible with Divine Heresy to begin with). The future only looks bleak at this point for a band looking to cash in on what could have become their big break with their second album that is ten years too late. Call it a love for nostalgia, I don’t care at this point. Nu-metal contends heavily with the difficult and often overlooking heavy metal community. Snot was one of these contenders and hopefully the message gets through to all the minds that think nu metal has no place in music. This is a great place to start with nu-metal, seeing as Lynn Strait left this world on such a high note with nothing but a peep from the metal community. Hopefully when Snot returns to the fold, people will look back to this album and realize the potential they had with their funky (old school) Red Hot Chilli Peppers gone metal approach. RIP Lynn Strait.
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