Time does weird things to one’s musical tastes. These days the expected norm of “growing up” usually entails people expecting you to stop listening to that “childish dog-barking crap” and “mature” into liking boring shit like Modest Mouse, Radiohead and Sigur Ros. Some people give in and do that, and you end up seeing their pictures all over tumblr while they hold a can of PBR and act way more drunk than they actually are while wearing an indian headdress. Some of us avoid that and discover that most of the music we scorned in our high school elitist phase for being “false” is actually really fucking fun to jam. We don’t necessarily give up our Immolations and Deathspell Omegas for good, but these days all you see on our last.fm scrobbles are 50 plays of Lamb of God and Abandon All Ships, and maybe only 5 Ulcerate tracks. BUT I DIGRESS, my whole point in this is that I don’t really have any nostalgia related to the almighty Mushroomhead, they weren’t a band I got into before I discovered “tr00 metal” and I pretended to grow out of them and not like them. No, I don’t love Mushroomhead due to the rosey glasses of nostalgia, I like them purely based on the quality of their music as it sounds to my ears in 2011. It’s outdated, cheesy, and filled to the brim with nu metal gimmicks, but goddammit these guys knew how to stitch a song together (there’s a pun in there, asshole, laugh).
I say “knew how” because this new stuff makes it obvious that they no longer can.
ANYWAY like many nu metal bands, Mushroomhead has some secret hardcore cred that their actual fans are clueless of, and hardcore kids hate admitting exists. Unfortunately the band they have an ex-member from is Integrity. I know. That’s what I said. Their former rap/scream vocalist J-Mann (Sgt. D knows his real name and I’m too lazy to look it up) used to be in Integrity in like 2000 or something, I don’t know. I couldn’t give a fuck about it, but I looked up one of the songs he was on and he’s the only redeeming factor.
I guess there’s some dual-vocal shit going on in this song, I don’t know. Who cares. This isn’t about Integrity. This is about MUSHROOMHEAD. IMO they are one of the more underrated nu metal bands, and they somehow never got on the radio despite their songs being SUPER accessible. Slipknot has blastbeats and got on the radio, Mushroomhead writes countless alt-rock songs like Almost Gone and is still only touring with bands like Hed PE. Go figure. Maybe I’m just in denial about them sucking, but I don’t give a fuck because Solitaire/Unraveling is nu metal genius.
Those breathy grunts at 0:26, be still my beating Godsmack!
Anyway at some point they lost the hardcore cred guy and replaced him with some redneck who sings like a mix of a Backstreet Boy, Scott Stapp and growls like the singer of Breaking Benjamin. But they added more doublebass so I dunno I guess I still liked it even though I wasn’t willing to admit it was a huge step down overall.
Also their bassist’s stage name is Pig Benis. How can you not love that? Either way I like some of the more ballad-y songs on that album but it didn’t have the same raw wigger energy that J-Mann brought. HOW CAN I WEAR YOUR MESH SHORTS IF I CAN’T EVEN CRIP-WALK TO YOUR SONGS???
Whoever wants to buy me these can email me at jpolachek4@gmail.com
But on the real, J-Mann’s wigger cred is no joke. He also has a rap project called 10,000 CADILLACS. Which is, needless to say, beyond cops. I know nothing about good rap, so I love this based on the sole fact that it’s associated with Mushroomhead. I also like Xzibit and Jedi Mind Tricks so that probably means it suggs.
19MOTHERFUCKIN98! Amazing.
On the other end of the spectrum, Mushroomhead actually got some LEGIT METAL CRED by touring with Meshuggah and having Jens Kidman do guest vocals on one of their best songs. Also Meshuggah’s “I” EP was released on J-Mann’s label. It’s called something but fuck if I know what it is. Now that I think about it, I don’t know if they ever toured together, but I’m assuming they did just because why not who cares big deal. Either way this song stomps nuggs like real steel does:
THIS PAIIIIN. REMAAAIIINS. I b feelin u br0)))
Pretty much Mushroomhead is the best nu metal band that painted their faces up like Venom from Spider-Man ever, and you should download the albums XX and XIII because they are full of Big Dick Cola Jamz(TM). I’ll leave you with possibly one of the best nu metal singles my ears have ever heard. The heaviness and sense of momentum almost makes me wanna cry it’s so good, plus the lyrics don’t amount to anything coherent and that’s the BEST.
DO YOU LOVE MUSHROOMHEAD OPENLY AND UN-IRONICALLY OR ARE YOU AFRAID OF YOUR TRUE SELF??? DO YOU THINK I WOULD GIVE A SINGLE SHIT ABOUT THIS BAND IF THEY DIDN’T LOOK LIKE MCFARLANE ACTION FIGURES??? WHAT IN THE GODDICKSDAMN FUCK DOES “KILL TOMORROW YESTERDAY” MEAN???
I think it’s interesting that they started the whole “wear creepy masks” thing, but that gimmick is widely associated with Slipknot. I wonder if they are jelly about that.
lol I do remember a few years ago going ont heir wiki page and literally there was more space dedicated to how much they hated the ‘knot than there was to their music. You could tell it was written by some butthurt mushroomhead fan clearly thinking something along the lines of “that’ll show those poseur rippoffs what the score is”.
im usually in agreeance with this blog but this band sucks so bad its not even funny.
Yeah, they jelly. According to wikipedia.
I liked Modest Mouse, Radiohead and Sigur Ros in middleschool at the same time i liked hardcore.
I’m only a little fake-butthurt over Radiohead and Modest Mouse being called “boring shit,” but Sigur Ros has always been better than rohypnol for making me sleepy.
“Goddicksdamn fuck”. I’m using that saying from now on.
And brilliantly written, brah, I was lol’ing hard!
You are indeed in denial about Mushroomhead sucking. I was into them briefly back in 2005 (this was fifth grade, by the way), and then shortly thereafter I realized that they were terrible and I hated pretty much everything about them.
Also, I’m currently a fan of Modest Mouse, Radiohead and Sigur Ros, as well as 25 Ta Life, Dope and early Linkin Park. Does this mean I am a paradox???
No it just means you’re afraid of your true self
not sure if srs…
Yeah Mushroomhead is actually really good.
Sun Doesn’t Rise got a ton of radio play, so did their cover of Crazy by Seal.
I missed it I guess, but that’s awesome then!
To be fair Ulcerate songs are like half an hour long. Also I love Mushroomhead kind of like they were a local band even if I am from Philly. They’re catchy, they’re fun, they bring the m0sh.
Never liked Mushroomhead, but my old band played a show with them and Hatebreed once, and they were actually super nice guys. I spent most of my time talking to “hardcore cred guy” about In Cold Blood.
oh i forgot In Cold Blood. Jason aka J Man or whatever was also in a lulzy moshcore band called 216. Not sure exactly what they released since it’s hard to search their name, but they were hilarious.
they have one lp on victory
http://www.victoryrecords.com/merch/cds/9305/In_Cold_Blood_Hell_On_Earth
its basically the “real” integrity, aka the Melnik(sp?) bros. without Dwid, its pretty good. slightly less metally than integrity.
There’s some stuff on youtube, also he was in a band with Gene Hoglan that was basically more aggro nu metal with some gnarly guest vocalists (Human Furnace, Randy Blythe). Don’t remember the name.
Good band and cool bros. If you go to a mushroomhead show and don’t enjoy yourself, you hate fun.
It’s decent for Nu Metal, I will give it that. They heavy.
That one “never let it go” song is tight as fuck.
That video for 12 Hundred was really good. They show up on the horror movie set looking like nu metal Cenobites and then that one dude gets crucified.
I like how half this article is in-jokes I have with you.
I like Xzibit and JMT also…:(
I thought the solitare unraveling video was hard as fuck when I first saw it and was surprised it got such heavy rotation on MTV
loved them 5 or 6 years ago. i was super into them. this post brings good memories.
I got into metal too late for nu-metal. But yeah, I only ever heard about these guys in the context of cautionary tales about the dark days of nu-metal, before it stopped being a genre and started being something for Slipknot and Linkin Park to run away from.
This band sucks, all of their projects suck and you suck if you like them. Slipknot didn’t rip them off. First Mushroomhead ripped off Gwar, then ripped off Slipknot while saying Slipknot ripped them off. Also, Slipknot sucks.
typical pissed music fan, cry us a river bro
+1 zillion
Mushroom head. Crazy, actually they have more hardcore roots than you think. Anyone remember the Spud Monsters? They have a former member as the original bassist. Another crazy fact. My dad played in a band called Purgatory in 1986 that was fronted by Jeff Hatrix, who now is Jeffery Nothing in mushroom head. Purgatory was SOO much better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gf4hcEM6OQ shit rules.
ha! i used to hang out with Don from Spudmonsters, real good dude