March 2023 Featured Release - The Gateway Edition

That's right ladies and gentlemen, we are back for another month of featured releases her at Metal Academy and I must say, the last few months have been ripe with new releases. For March however, let's go back in time to 1999 and discuss the debut record from Static-X: Wisconsin Death Trip.

https://metal.academy/releases/5110

Before I make the thread for my June feature releases and playlists, I'd like to share my thoughts about this feature release that I skipped but have not caught up. Here's my review summary:

The late Wayne Static, along with bassist Tony Campos, guitarist Koichi Fukuka, and drummer Ken Jay have made pretty good industrial/nu metal straight outta California. What's interesting is the album title, coming from the 1973 Michael Lesy book. The programmed drumming shows the band's noise-powered industrial metal tendencies, while being easily performed with actual drums. Static's vocal range is impressive, ranging from shouts to cleans without difficulty. The atmospheric synths and heavy riffing are also essential to the album's sound. In the end, we get to have a nice lookback at the first work of the band Wayne Static is mostly known for. RIP Wayne....

4/5