Mushroomhead earns its spot on the list because it is the best band in the genre it helped spawn. Yes, there are like ten members in the band. And yes, they all wear strange face paint and interesting masks and have made up names. Before you even say “Hey, that sounds like Slipknot”, know that the answer from any Mushroomhead fan will be “NO! No, it doesn’t.” Mushroomhead started years before Slipknot, and for some reason Slipknot fans started some stupid rivalry trying to say Mushroomhead was a…. Nevermind. That doesn’t really matter.
Oh, and about the masks and fake names, it’s because Mushroomhead was a supergroup whose members were all in other bands and they wanted to create a distinction and still remain anonymous.
Why does Mushroomhead rule the supergroup industrial metal scene? It has the best combination and utilization of screaming and singing vocals I’ve heard. I love both the whiny singing vocals of Jeffrey Nothing, and the almost rap-py, yelling deep voice of J-Man. XIII was the culmination of four albums of experimentation. It is the refining of all that is Mushroomhead into one truly epic album. What really makes Mushroomhead stand out is their incorporation of DJ elements and keyboards! The keyboards add an emotional element to the mix that allows me to connect to the band on a deeper level. Mushroomhead is large and noisy, but when I was 17 they were exactly the band I was looking for. And I stand by my initial love for their sound.
How does it make me feel?
Like smashing everything in my world into oblivion and then sitting in the dust and letting go of everything in a fit of tears.
What to Listen for Track by Track
♦ The creepy baby sound, 8 seconds into Kill Tomorrow that continues to throw up throughout the album
♦ 26 seconds into Kill Tomorrow when J-Man first enters the fray.
♦ Sun Doesn’t Rise proving just how amazing dual vocals(yelling and singing) can be when the vocalists share the spotlight equally. It’s most obvious at about a minute in. Also, pay attention to J-Mans part that comes in at 2:12.
♦ The opening change up piano entrance of Mother Machine Gun. And its fade out at 3:40 again, showing that Mushroomhead ebb and flow of loud and quiet.
♦ Nowhere to Go. In its entirety. More specifically? The underlying piano at 26 seconds. Listen to the way Jeffrey Nothing’s voice hangs over the music during the verses. And listen to J-Man’s deep “talking” part in the song, as he pulls off the ability to be the yeller in the band, and also participate in a quiet song. Talent. Again, listen to how the two vocalists know how to share the spotlight. Then comes Jeffrey Nothing’s “I Erode” line at 1:05. There’s a dual vocal build that starts at 1:35, and lasts a minute up until they enter the final chorus. Just listen to how the synths and piano subtlety fill in the rest of the song. Can you tell I love this song? Lol.
♦ The transition into Becoming Cold and how its heaviness is sandwiched perfectly between my two favorite lighter tracks on the album.
♦ The opening drums of One More Day. The layered vocals that blend perfectly into that amazing underlying piano melody. The female backing vocals at a little after a minute. The awesome violin chorus over everything at 2:19.
♦ The heaviness of The Dream is Over.
♦ How awesome Jeffrey Nothing’s vocals always blend with guitars is heard on Almost Gone.
♦ Mushroomhead continuing to show that it isn’t simply a yelling metal band with this curve ball of a track, Our Own Way. Somehow, they’re even able to incorporate yelling vocals in a soothing way, by surrounding it with synths and piano.
♦ The complete epicness of Destroy the World Around Me. Starting with the distorted yelling at 30 seconds, that builds into J-Mans yelling over an awesome marching drum beat at 50 seconds. Jeffrey Nothing takes over at 2:25, again knowing exactly how to share the vocals spotlight. Again, there’s that underlying piano…with the megaphone talking, J-Man, and Jeffrey Nothing all with input, crossing over each other while the distorted vocals continue to do “oh”s in the background. The piano and guitar just keep building and building endlessly upward through 4:32’s “Unto the darkness” line. Then there’s the final build that starts at 5:31 with the reentrance of the drums and followed then by vocals and those swirling guitars. Lets not forget the drums at 7:46…
♦ Oh, Thirteen… This is how you end an album. Crackling old school recording sound, Irish music and synths and a baby laughing. SERIOUSLY??? And dare I say, Kanye stole the sound of “Runaway” from this song. Lol. This is a song that demonstrates just how much Mushroomhead cannot be labeled and discarded. And then just as the record slips, the hidden track of Mushroomhead enters, covering Seal’s “Crazy”!! Now that’s crazy. Then a final DJ’ed outro, reminiscent of Linkin Park’s, “Cure for the Itch” stylings.
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