I've pretty much just fallen off from alt-metal after my recent departure from The Gateway. I've moved away from alt-metal bands and even some bands that mix the genre with others like metalcore and industrial metal. When this Mushroomhead album XIII ended up as a Gateway feature release, I thought I would give this band and album another go. And I have to say...

I still enjoy this! The experimentation I can admire when blended with the accessibility they've gained after their first 3 albums that were self-released. I've considered Mushroomhead a standout band in alt-/nu metal, and revisiting this excellent album made me restore that thought.

Opening track "Kill Tomorrow" has some of the stoner-ish vibes of early Black Sabbath given a more anthemic alt touch. "Sun Doesn't Rise" is the first single, a commercial yet metal banger with a catchy chorus sung and growled by vocalists Jeffrey Nothing and J Mann, respectively. The band gains some strength in "Mother Machine Gun", which has some moody piano. Then we have some smooth emotion in "Nowhere to Go". And some heaviness in "Becoming Cold (216)".

"One More Day" is more of a gothic-sounding power ballad with violin and female singing, the latter performed by Devon Gorman. That's the kind of experimentation I love that they didn't have too much of in their underground releases, though the earlier heaviness would carry on into subsequent tracks in this offering... "The Dream is Over" is so d*mn brutal with guest vocals by Meshuggah vocalist Jens Kidman. "The War Inside" explores breakneck speed which makes another highlight. "Almost Gone" has more of that old-school Sabbath twang in the riffing which I don't mind. "Eternal" is more focused on speed and roars. A little tiring but still great.

"Our Own Way" is the most melancholic track, with nothing but sorrow in the piano, guitars, and vocals. I love it! Though it's only surpassed by the 8-minute epic "Destroy the World Around Me". The doomy drama of that track I think should've ended the album right there. However, it is followed by the one track I find somewhat weak, track number "Thirteen". It sounds a little too creepy and almost comes out as filler. And I'm not too crazy about their cover of "Crazy" by Seal, though it's still OK.

If this album ended with that 8-minute epic, I would've consider Mushroomhead's XIII a perfect album enough to make me reconsider abandoning all of alt-metal. Still the majority of this release has satisfied me. Who knows if I might revisit their later albums someday? Well, never say never!

Favorites: "Kill Tomorrow", "Sun Doesn't Rise", "One More Day", "The Dream is Over", "The War Inside", "Our Own Way", "Destroy the World Around Me"

I was a bit more sympathetic to the 'charms' of nu-metal back in its heyday, and regularly spun CDs from the likes of Slipknot, Korn and Spineshank. Mushroomhead's "XIII" was another that I picked up at the time of release. It appealed to me because it felt like it had quite a dark and ominous subtext to it, as opposed to the youthful anger and impotent rage of the more popular nu-metal acts. However, as I succumbed more and more to the seductions of extreme metal, the rap-heavy and ultimately impotent anger of nu-metal dropped out of my metal diet almost completely.

It has been a long time since I last played "XIII" but hearing it for the first time in many years I am reminded of why it had a particular appeal to me in the first place. It kicks off strongly with the ascerbic-sounding "Kill Tomorrow" complete with its hardcore-derived vocals hitting hard from the off, threatening to rip the listener's head clean off. "Sun Doesn't Rise" buys more into the rap side of nu-metal, but it has that ominous atmosphere to it that initially drew me to the album way back when. This dark cloud of ominous uncertainty sets this album apart from the "Iowa"s and "Follow the Leader"s of the time and is much more in keeping with the kind of doom aesthetic that appeals to me most. Alongside this there is often a mechanical throb to the riffs ("Mother Machine Gun" and "The Dream Is Over" for example) a la Fear Factory that gives Mushroomhead's version of nu-metal an industrial feeling at times and which positions them as close to FF as Korn.

The band sound incredibly tight with chunky riffs and a throbbing bassline, although the drums sound a little thinner than I would have liked, particularly the snare which, whilst it is no St Anger, is still a little tinny. The dual vocals contrasts hardcore punk raging with a strong, and faintly bluesy clean style for a quite striking effect. They also had an uncanny ear for a catchy melody with "Nowhere to Go" surprisingly never released as a single, despite sounding more radio-friendly than the album's only actual single "Sun Doesn't Rise" and making me feel like I should be waving a Zippo lighter in the air whilst "Almost Gone" is such a groovy mutha that it may well make even a grumpy old metalhead like me want to start dancing! Obviously such a long album would be much better if it had finished after the 8-minute "Destroy the World Around Me", foregoing the inconsequential "Thirteen" which is quite annoying, particularly with the old 'scratchy needle' sound effect, and the cover of Seal's "Crazy" which feels out of place with the rest of the material here.

The last few minutes aside, listening to this now, over two decades after its release, it feels like it has aged incredibly well, unlike so many of its contemporries from the nu-metal scene and still sounds fresh and exhilharating. Thanks for putting this forward as a feature, Saxy, and allowing me to reconnect with an old friend that I haven't entertained in quite a while and who is actually better company than I remember them being.

First thing to note is that I didn't completely hate this. Yeah I know, no one was more surprised than me, but I was swept along by the obvious enthusiasm and energy of the band and kind of went along for the ride. The speedy riffs and shredding solos are pretty entertaining, the riffs to both "Scream for Me" and "Burden of Time" for example stood out as being much heavier than I would have expected. Vocalist Asami is a big plus, sounding both melodic and reasonably powerful, although I am not so keen when she reaches for those really high notes and becomes a bit screechingly ragged, although this seems to be a feature of power metal generally that I just can't get to grips with. It is power metal after all so, of course, it is larger than life and over-the-top with keyboard overlays and some layered backing vocals, but not in a terribly cringey manner, ultimately being more operatic than pantomime. I do think that the album runs out of steam after "Burden of Time" and tracks like "The Apocalypse", "Inspire" and the godawfully balladic "Edge of the World" (the album's nadir for me) sound more like the kind of power metal that I struggle with.

Look, in truth this isn't going to break into my top 500 (or even 1000) metal albums and I am unlikely ever to pass this way again, but while it lasted I found it entertaining enough and I got through the whole thing pretty easily without a single skip and remarkably few cringes. In fact, if it had ended with "Burden of Time" I would have thought even more highly of it. Damning with faint praise then? Yeah, probably, but for me and power metal this was an untypically positive experience with the guitars and vocals being sufficiently impressive to keep me on board and to allow me to forgive the album its other obvious excesses, not least of which is the ear-batteringly, over-compressed mastering that makes it feel like it is being rammed into your ears with a steamhammer - and not in a good way!

Between 2000’s ‘Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavoured Water’ and 2003’s ‘Results May Vary’, American rap rockers Limp Bizkit went from being one of the biggest bands on the planet, to becoming one of the most hated. There is a number of reasons for this. Whether it’s to do with the quality of the music, pop culture fads, individual members of the band, or just about any other reason you can think of, it’s undeniable that from the mid-90’s to the early 2000’s, Limp Bizkit’s career was on an upwards trajectory. 

Then they released this abomination. 

‘New Old Songs’, released in 2001, features a whole bunch of soulless, uninspired and quite frankly, terrible remixes of tracks from the bands previous three studio releases. I can see how this certainly put people off. None of these tracks are overly enjoyable. They certainly didn’t appeal to the rock and metal fans, and I doubt hip hop fans would have cared to give it a chance either. 

At an absolute stretch, the ONLY decent track is the DJ Lethal remix of ‘My Way’, but even that is clutching at straws. I’d much rather listen to the original track. 

I don’t know what Limp Bizkit were aiming for here, but it blew up in their faces. Did the album sell a lot of copies and make lots of dollar for the band? Absolutely. Is there anyone who actually likes this album though? No. No there isn’t.  

‘Voice in the Light’ is a 2007 concept album by progressive metal supergroup, Amaran’s Plight. Featuring renowned musicians such as vocalist D.C. Cooper (Royal Hunt), guitarist Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery) and drummer Nick D’Virgilio (Spock’s Beard), this ambitious release is a treat for fans of the genre, and for fans of the individuals involved. 

Stylistically, this sounds a lot like Shadow Gallery. Fans of the band will no doubt enjoy this, and it shows the heavy involvement of guitarist and songwriter Gary Wehrkamp. Clocking in at one hour and 19 minutes, and stretching the physical CD to its storage limits, I won’t deny that I find the story a bit muddy at times. Whether it’s due to the long-winded duration, or just a number of filler tracks causing me to lose interest, usually by the end of the album I’m left baffled by whatever the concept was supposed to be. 

Musically however, this is a very good release, with a number of particular stand-out moments. The musicianship is excellent (as you’d expect), with plenty of dazzling guitar and keyboard virtuosity, as well as fantastic vocal performances, and the album is full of both heavy and melodic tracks. Highlights include ‘Truth and Tragedy’, ‘Turning Point’, ‘Betrayed By Love’, ‘Coming of Age’, the beautiful ‘Reflections Part 1’, and in my opinion the highlight of the album, the energetic ‘Viper’. 

While I doubt this is likely to be anyone’s favourite album, especially as the duration can make it a bit of a slog at times, overall, ‘Voice in the Light’ is a very solid release, and a worthy addition to any progressive metal collection.