Review Summary: Taproot jumps for the stars, and misses the landing.
After 2 successful tours around the country with Ozzfest, Taproot was rearing to go with a brand new album with 100% new material. They heard that famed producer Toby Wright was going to work with them, as you can imagine a producer who’s worked with fellow nu/alt. metal acts such as Sevendust, and Soulfly, but with rock/metal legends Alice in Chains, and Slayer, they must’ve been pretty excited. With over 40 songs in their rough stages ready to present to Toby, he looks up…..and asks the group “to start from scratch”.
As you can see the recording process to “Welcome” was everything but. The only song to remain from the aforementioned 40 was “Poem” (which is easily their most well known single). Taproot struggled to find a comfort zone with Toby and find a common ground for their new sound, Toby in interviews has stated he’d wanted the band to sound more progressive and “like Tool” while Taproot was more interested in losing nu-metal and going alt. metal. “Welcome” became a confusing garbled mess of confusion of direction. While a few songs hit, a lot more seem to miss.
The album opens up with the awkward “Mine” it’s a strange choice for an opening song, and Steven’s singing shows how uncomfortable he is. The well known and infamous “Poem” starts next, and begins to pick up the slack, it’s a very nice and well done song to say the least. ”Art” fittingly shows the new direction of the band done at it’s finest, and is one of the best songs on the album. “Fault” “When” & “Sumtimes” are harkens back to the old style on Gift, however they seem to have a lot missing as they try too hard to shove in their more “artistic” side into it.
The problem with “Welcome” is that is shows little to no flair, it’s a lot like a steak dinner with a sliver of beef, and mostly vegetables. No song is truly bad, but no song is truly good, not one song manages to leave an impact. Taproot is capable of better, but they were lost in a time where nu-metal was going to stale, and they needed somewhere to go, but they jumped in with the wrong crowd.
Recommended songs-
Poem
Art
(Anyone you can remember)
Songs to Skip-
Mine
