Slipknot - Vol.3 (The Subliminal Verses) - 2004 - "...Welcome to annihilation."

For their third album, nu metal's masked minstrels of mayhem dial back on the aggro overdrive and strive to add more dimension and variety to their usual cacophonous onslaught of speed and fury.

First and foremost, Slipknot is a band of extremes. At the time of recording Vol. 3, this band featured nine members (founding member and bassist Paul Gray died on May 24, 2010). They wear creepy masks that resemble something out of a Wes Craven nightmare. They also play songs that would make a pedophile blush at speeds that seem to clock in at about 1,000bpm. For Vol. 3, Slipknot bunkered down in a haunted Los Angeles mansion (where Blood Sugar Sex Magik was recorded) and summoned mega producer Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash, Danzig, System of a Down, etc.) to ensure the quality of their most adventurous effort yet.  

As it turns out, these brutal ogres from Iowa have hearts of gold after all. Don't get me wrong -- these guys are still brutal on Vol. 3. Old skool fans will definitely find the decay, pain, hurt, and the demonic stuff here (...'Fingers on your skin, let me savage in...' etc.). However, you will also find melody, harmonies ('Circle' and 'Vermillion, Pt. 2' especially), acoustic guitars and a few medium paced tempos. There's even catchy choruses for songs that sound like something getting sodomized by a cement mixer. And it works -- there is a nice enough flow among the hard-hard-soft-hard-hard-soft song sequence. Vol. 3 is pretty enough for the less-than-brutal souls, but it also aims to not alienate the arm-carving types. My own personal confession after listening to this album? I actually got more enjoyment watching these guys slow it down...it's pretty fucking good and spooky at times (check out the album closer 'Danger - Keep Away'). 

Constructive comment time -- the lyrical approach on Vol. 3 is utterly ridiculous. Too much of the album's lyrics utilized some sort of clarity/conflict/contradictory solution technique. I'll demonstrate:

'...I am all, but what am I...?'

'...My future seems like one big past...'

'...The lies that I owned, now own me...'

'...Now as far as I know, I don't know anything...'

Just for giggles, one of the above lines is made up by me (I'll never tell which one), the other three are honest to god quotes from Vol. 3. After realizing this technique four or so songs in, it became a personal joke to see if singer Corey Taylor would keep it up. Boy, did he ever. This realization yielded a heavy point loss on this album for me. This swill reads like Hot Topic spiral notebook high school poetry. I also just about shit my wagon when I heard a gutteral, 'JUST LOVE ME!' towards the end of the album. Maybe I missed the point, but when I scratched the surface too deeply, Vol. 3 felt less like a brave new step and more like inane melodrama.

I'm not ashamed to admit that despite its hilarious flaws, I enjoyed this album. Granted, I'm a headbanging drama nerd from the '90's, so I may be a part of Vol. 3's key demographic. Some may approach this album with trepidation ('Danger'), others may be repelled by its presentation or effect ('Keep Away'). But remember, this album has a tender side ('...just love me?'). Maybe what Slipknot needs most of all is a few hugs and a kitty.

In memory of Paul Gray

April 8, 1972 - May 24, 2010  

The Smashing Pumpkins - MACHINA/The Machines of God - 2000 - "...I'm just living for myself ."

Originally intended to be the final Smashing Pumpkins album, MACHINA / The Machines of God finds frontman Billy Corgan and his crew aiming high with a collection of songs that seems to have baffled critics and alienated the remains of their post-Adore audience.

I'll be honest: This is not the best Pumpkins album in their catalog. But there is some good news to start us off -- original drummer Jimmy Chamberlain kicked his heroin habit and got his old job back prior to recording the album. However, original bassist D'arcy Wretzky picked up a crack cocaine habit and lost her job with the band -- slightly bad news. And then there is the singer Billy Corgan -- the indomitable whiny dictator asshole who strangled the band into obscurity, or the brilliantly talented yet oh so alternatively troubled misanthrope who catapulted the band to mega rock stardom, depending on whose side you're on. As the band lumbered into this phase of its career (and MACHINA was not their final album, by the way), the Smashing Pumpkins = Billy Corgan equation rang as true as ever in a way that ultimately produced some interesting, yet misguided results.

Early in the recording phase, Corgan crafted MACHINA to be a concept album in which the album's narrator hears the voice of God and undergoes some deep personal changes filtered through themes of loneliness, peace, love, epiphany, and loss. Wretzky's departure forced the scale of the concept to be all but abandoned, but 'Glass and the Ghost Children' still contains probably the biggest batch of hints about the true essence of MACHINA's intended soul. Further, tendrils of the concept can be found elsewhere in MACHINA -- especially the themes of love ('If you want love, you must be love') and God...lots of God ('Here you are, as you always were, in bathing light, and naked blur, you're a part of me Eternal One').

Where the album worked best for me was through another significant theme -- references to the rise and fall of the band itself ('Let me die for rock n roll'...and 'Dispatch the last alarms, Hand out the last few charms'). I truly grew to love and appreciate these references, and not because I took any joy in the demise of the Smashing Pumpkins. The Smashing Pumpkins were at one point time HUGE, and to own their nadir with unvarnished honesty is a powerful statement by the band (Billy). At times like these, the album felt like what it was meant to be, a final act, and MACHINA, at times, expertly harnessed the bittersweet timbre of the band's farewell to its audience.

Where the album faltered for me was in its sheer length (a breezy 73 minutes and change), which is a long time to spend with Billy, his melancholy, and his infinite sadness. And the aborted yet present concept was distracting for me. Enough was there for me to realize it, but it was undercooked enough to feel a bit like, well, aural blue balls. Also, given how much I loved the 'swan song' vibe of MACHINA, my biggest regret is that the reformation of the Pumpkins post-MACHINA ultimately undercut the best parts about the album and rendered it a minor blip in the grand scheme of the band's discography.

Don't get me wrong, for Pumpkins fans, this album has a few gems ('Raindrops + Sunshowers' and 'Try, Try, Try'), and even with its glaring flaws (the embarrassing 'Heavy Metal Machine'), I'm glad that I checked it out, and I would recommend it to even the biggest Siamese Dream or Gish (the good albums) fan. See for yourself, but take faith in the fact that there is probably something for you to enjoy here.

Oh, and one more thing, and this is just my opinion: Billy Corgan is about a 65% shitty singer. There. I said it. 

Have fun.