Static-X - Wisconsin Death Trip (1999)^{Release ID: 5110}

In 2014, Wayne Static passed away from a severe multiple drug/alcohol reaction. Then over a year later, his wife, adult film star Tera Wray committed suicide. The remaining band members thought about reviving the band in a way of tribute for the band's founder, and so that's what they done. They recovered some of Wayne's unused vocal takes for an album series title Project Regeneration. They also embarked on a 20th anniversary tour for their debut Wisconsin Death Trip, a beast that I shall talk about now!

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, though it reminds me of the USA state I used to live in when I was little.

"Push It" shows Wayne's industrial nu metal sound that shall live on. Sounds like something my brother would've listened to over 10 years ago, but he didn't, he was listening to other similar bands. The song was used in some video game/film soundtracks in 1999 and the 2000s. "I'm With Stupid" has great lyrics to like. "HE'S A LOSER!!!" Taking on the mental health of the late frontman, "Bled for Days" was used for ex-Seether drummer Nick Oshiro's audition after Ken Jay left. 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 band has more tricks up their sleeve in "Love Dump" with atmospheric synths. You can kinda consider this rave metal! The riffing and drums keep things heavy.

In high gear is the fast aggression of "I Am" with nu metal-ish lyrics rap-growled by Static ("Put a gun in my mouth and threaten to shoot"). A programmed industrial intro starts "Otsegolation" with the vocals being drawn out alongside some fine guitar groove. "Stem" starts with an audio sample from the 1990 gory horror film Begotten, then synths appear in this bluesy hard rock tune. Static's shouted vocals make sure that this song isn't an oddball in the album. The drums and synths are all around, a little more than the guitar in fact. Stepping in again is "Sweat of the Bud" for the metal aspect while having more of the programmed drums and vocals from earlier.

With lyrics that are just repeated while worth singing along to, "Fix" seems too obvious in referencing drugs. The title track summarizes the album in smooth flow. The lyrics are mostly repeated, but there is the trance-y industrial vibe in the music. However, it's highly different from Fear Factory. "Don’t you sing dong ding dong!" The monolithic "The Trance is the Motion" has better vocals, including those growls. The synth-fueled "December" closes the album in a hypnotic industrial noise rock instrumental.

In the end, we get to have a nice lookback at the first work of the band Wayne Static is mostly known for. And hey, I just realized that this album is a recent Gateway feature release that I missed. Gotta catch up! RIP Wayne....

Favorites: "Push It", "Bled for Days", "I Am", "Sweat of the Bud", "Wisconsin Death Trip", "The Trance is the Motion"

Static-X's debut album came at a time when the nu metal subgenre was helping heavy metal get its foothold back in the mainstream, and whilst commonly labelled as industrial metal, Wayne Static and his lads were able to easily slip in with the rest of the "nu" crowd and stand out as one of the heavier acts the scene had to offer.

Sadly, that alone won't make them much good.

For all the hype and nostalgia around this release, it isn't really all that impressive, and certainly hasn't aged too well. It's very repetitive, and not very exciting. Almost every guitar riff sounds the same, and whilst there are some fat grooves dotted around, as a whole, it just seems like one of those albums you claim to like, but you're not really sure why.

Wayne Static's mostly incomprehensible vocals and guttural noises wear thin pretty quickly, and there's quite a few "slow" moments on the album that probably detract, more than add, to the dynamics. There are a couple of passable tracks, for example, 'Love Dump' (which to me, was the heaviest song ever when I first heard it way back in the day), 'Bled for Days' and 'Push It' aren't bad... but none of them are really all that memorable, either. Then there's complete tosh like 'December'. Who thought that "song" was a good idea?

'Wisconsin Death Trip' might be worth picking up for the sake of nostalgia, but you'll quickly remember why you forgot about it in the first place.