Review Summary: You don't need to bother, but you most definitely should.
Stone Sour started off in 1992, playing the one or two bars in the Des Moines area, playing heavily melodic alternative rock. They went on for a few more years until 1997 when singer Corey got tired of Des Moines and tried moving to Colorado to pursue music. It was a no go so he returned to Des Moines, joined Slipknot, and after things started to overheat between the guys in Slipknot, Corey returned to his roots in Stone Sour in 2002, while giving them the extra crunch they could only think of doing in the mid '90s.
Dark, brooding, angry. All those words could describe this record, at certain songs. While staying consistent in the overall blueprint of alternative metal, they shift between the alternative and the metal frequently. Tracks like Get Inside, and Idle Hands play out as metal, while songs like Bother, and Take A Number slow things down a bit with their mellow depressing approach. Comparing Stone Sour to Slipknot is inevitable due to the singer and guitarist from Slipknot is in the band, which they're main songwriters in both. Unlike Slipknot, this album showcases the bassist a lot more. Orchids, Blotter, and Tumult are the good examples. The fact that they show off an alright bass player more than an above average bass player is beyond me, but I'm not in their decision making process.
There's heavy songs and mellow songs, but the straight forward rockers that aren't particularly metal but aren't soft are present. Inhale sounds like its made for radio with its big chorus and slow verses, while Cold Reader channels the less radio friendly side of melodic with the somewhat angry singing, and straight screaming chorus. Most of the songs on the record have a third verse as opposed to various other bands in the scene that have the break after the second chorus. They also have guitar solos, which at that time period was just seeping back into frame. While some songs balance between heavy and soft rather nicely, there's some songs that feel unbalanced. Monolith is slow and brooding for the majority of the track but at the end there's a burst of heaviness that felt somewhat of an add on, like they were trying to find ways to get the album to be a tiny bit heavier. Such as Idle Hands which seems largely pointless and as a effortless attempt at making a track to coexist in the world of Get Inside, it comes off as a second rate version with lyrics twice as cringey. Choose is forgettable in almost every manner except the main riff.
Blue Study comes in with drums right after the haunting ballad Bother, which is arguably their most famous song. It starts off rather boring and hardly let's up. As I'm typing this I don't remember any part of the song except the intro and the chorus. A slight let down from the hit from the album.
Well, that's 12 great to average songs. What more could you need?
Oh right, a pointless spoken word track. I remember listening to a Q&A where Corey straight up said that Omega was only done because he thought he could. So I can whole heartedly say that it is as filler as filler gets. He spent so much time thinking he could, he must've not thought of whether or not he should.
Well he shouldn't have.
My only complaints about this album is that it's almost too consistent, which made a couple of songs forgettable. After listening to the entire album in one sitting, I was tired of it until the only relief, Bother, came on. After that, I was somewhat refreshed, I was full groove until the final track, the useless pointless spoken word track.
Overall, it's a great release from a great band.
