Review Summary: Fred and the gang return with a bang.
Let me start by saying Limp Bizkit don’t give a f*** what none of y’all people think. Even though 90% of the music world despises their style and sound, they will still continue to make music how they want. That demands respect. As does Gold Cobra.
Let me begin by saying a few things about the lead up to listening to this album. If you walked into a music shop and bought this album, put it in your CD player and gave it a spin... And it turned out that LB totally changed their sound, and had created a masterpiece of prog, experimental amazingness that rivalled Dark Side of the Moon… Well it would be a TOTAL FAILURE in my opinion. You know why? Because that’s not what LB is about y’all. You don’t buy this bands albums to sit on your rocking chair, hand on chin, appreciating and dissecting the musical merits of song composure and complex time signatures. Oh no, LB is all about the adrenaline and aggression that overcomes your body when you put one of their albums on.
This is shown from the outset of Gold Cobra with the hilariously named “Introba” building up the tension before the explosion of the first proper song “Bring It Back”. Let me begin by saying that some of Wes’ guitar in this track would not feel out of place in Reign in Blood. It’s a stunning song. It’s like LB have gone for a Significant Other feel….But heavier. This trend carries on into perhaps the finest song on the album, “Gold Cobra”. Again the riffs in this song are fantastic. You can also tell the other band members are in top form with Sam Rivers dropping some seriously hard baselines and drummer John Otto really going hard with the sticks. This sound is carried through the majority of the album, and in particular, songs Shark Attack and Why Try.
However, like a classic LB album, the band does a ‘slow’ song. Almost as though the band was thinking the listener was struggling to keep up with the assault of riffs and baselines. They were right. “Walking Away” is this albums slow song. It is very moody and atmospheric and has a very haunting guitar. Easily one of the most dramatic and deep songs they have ever done.
Alas, LB soon gets back into the more typical nu-metal sound with “Autotunage”. Unfortunately, this is by far the weakest song on the album. Fred’s use of auto tune really does wreck what would have been a solid song.
Of course you can’t do a LB review without mentioning the ‘Polar Bear’ Fred Durst. As usual he supplies the lyrics to the album. Again he is on top form, and again he keeps to the style of LB. He sings about f***ing people up. And well, just being hard as hell…
“Douche bag I'm a f*** you up
F*** you, f*** you, f*** you up”
However, with Fred there is also a massive slab of humour that people always seem to miss with his lyrics. I mean, if you think Freddy D is being sincere with the following lines then you probably should not be listening to LB in the first place-
“maybe I'm explicit, but man it's just the bizkit
having me some fun with you dumb little chicklets
you know who you are
you insecure gorillas
the underdog Freddee D now became your killa”
Onto the negatives of the album. Well Autotunage sucks. And DJ Lethal is hardly heard apart from when he is doing some odd fills between songs. That’s about it.
To sum up, this is probably the greatest LB album they have done. It’s an assault of aggression that will leave you staggered and wanting more. If you want the music that you expect of Limp Bizkit, then get this album. Ch’yeah!
