Clawfinger
Hate Yourself With Style
6.2
Nu-metal is not going to die as easily as we hoped, I guess. I don't really care at this point. Now that it's screamcore and metalcore washing the airwaves, nu-metal doesn't seem quite as irritating. But it's lost little of its insipidity. What kind of makes me scratch my head here is that this band got to make a record at all. Then I think of all the post eighties power and hair metal bands that have wound their way through Metal Review dot Com and realize that whatever made these shit styles popular probably still exists in some form or other among the population of metalheads that keeps the entire scene from dying off.
OK OK, so what do you get when you crack case and lay plastic to lens? Shouty vocals, two or three chord funkmetal-based compositions, good production and easily digested hooks. If you can think of any aspect of nu-metal you enjoyed, this band is playing that aspect, because it's not without its charm. I would probably rather hear Slipknot or Soulfly if I am going to be forced to listen to any at all, but at least these guys aren't licking up any emo urine. This is all anger all the time. The songs can have a lovely topical bent, such as the opener "The Faggot in You", taking the "methinks he dost protest too much..." attitude, but they also tread the tired tired tired hypocrisy topics that are the bread and butter of modern popular metal. It's such a safe way to sound rebellious, it makes me want to become a hypocrite.
Wait, I review metal for people I hate. Already there. Whew.
The songs are absolutely predictable, absolutely hack and absolutely catchy. So you are running about average all the way through this thing. A few moderate tempo changes are not enough to steer this any place you haven't been too many times before. This record would have sounded fucking great next to Wisconsin Death Trip, or Home. As far as musicianship, they are tight, but it's not a style that showcases ability. The sound is, as it normally is with nu-metal, very good - dense, crisp and full of edge.
Bottom line? Fuck, it's not bad. I can't recommend it, but I wouldn't laugh too hard if you bought it and liked it. With the paucity of fantastic metal records creeping around here lately I simply can't waste any time listening to this. But it doesn't SUCK.
