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By GREG MAKI
Can we please stop with the Mushroomhead/Slipknot comparisons? It has gotten to the point where it is impossible to read anything about Mushroomhead without getting a heavy dose of that other masked band. But because Slipknot broke on the national scene first and quickly rose to the upper echelon of extreme metal bands, it doesn’t work in reverse. It’s a little ludicrous considering the two bands formed about the same time far away from each other in Cleveland , Ohio (Mushroomhead), and Des Moines , Iowa (Slipknot). Of late, the music press has been egging on the feud more than ever, peppering almost every interview with a Mushroomhead member with multiple Slipknot-related questions.
The thing is the two bands share little in common musically. Mushroomhead’s latest effort, Savior Sorrow, continues in a similar vein as their previous releases. The sound is heavy—abrasive at times—but also accessible with strong melodies. The album is their first with vocalist Waylon Reavis, who departed vocalist Jason Popson hand picked as his successor in 2004. To all but the biggest Mushroomhead fans, the change is barely noticeable. That’s how much Reavis sounds like Popson. The other half of the band’s two-pronged vocal attack, Jeffrey Nothing, who handles most of the melodic parts, further negates the impact of Popson’s departure. The two singers play off each other nicely and the variety in the vocals adds a welcome dimension to the band’s sound. See “Erase the Doubt” and “Just Pretending” for two of the album’s best examples of this. The band is at its best this time out on “The Fallen,” with its heavy groove, and when they lighten up and give us a heavy dose of keyboardist Tom Schmitz on “The Need” and “ Cut Me. ”
With four albums under their belts and a strong cult following that comes from a history of relentless touring, Mushroomhead has carved out a comfortable niche for themselves. Savior Sorrow probably gives most fans exactly what they expect. If you are not among the Mushroomhead faithful already, this disc is not likely to change that. It is a solid, if unspectacular, effort from a band that deserves to be in no one’s shadow. |
