A sonic assault worthy of past noise-industrial-goth-metal gurus like Ministry and KMFDM, this Southern California-based quartet began its ascent when "Bled For Days" landed on 1998's Bride Of Chucky soundtrack. Since then, constant touring--and an unrelenting musical approach--has made the band hot stuff.
With guitarist Wayne Static spitting out machine-gun riffs and Ken Jay's drums sounding like grenades being tossed into the control booth, "Push It" serves as an apt intro. "Love Dump" changes the beat but little else, and whips up a metal wall of sound that would make Lou Reed proud. But somewhere, a melody lurks--and when it surfaces, it sounds like a Cheap Trick riff. "Stem" stands out among the dozen tracks, cutting the tempo in half and adding swirling synthesizers to the mix.
The band's Chicago roots--Static and Jay shared a rehearsal space with an embryonic Smashing Pumpkins--go a long way to explain the incessant Wax Trax-like pounding on nearly every cut. Be prepared to unearth some lyrical gems: "I'm With Stupid" has a chorus fans can no doubt relate to: "He's a loser"; "Love Dump" contains the primo couplet of the year, "your sh-t's like chocolate cake/your ass smells like a rose/I really hate you." (The diagnosis? A simple case of white, middle-class aggression.)
You won't find any in-betweenies on this one--so, if you're not ready for a good head-pounding, to paraphrase Static-X, "conceal the scab you don't want to show...and drop dead."
Static-X: All recordings written by W. Static, K. Jay, T. Campos, K. Fukuda, courtesy of Warner Bros. and WB Music Corp./Heka 41 Music/Be Tek 2K Music/Buttmunch Music (ASCAP)/Warner Tamerlane Publishing Corp/Static-X (BMI).
