Mushroomhead - The Righteous And The Butterfly

So I finally took the plunge and came around to dealing with this record. *Deep breath*

After the absolute stink-fest of Saviour Sorrow and the suicide-inducing snooze-fest of Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children, I had all but given up hope on Mushroomhead. Then I heard J Mann would be guesting on the latest record. And then I heard that the plan to collaborate had been scrapped and J Mann had returned permanently. Fuck! And then, finally, this album dropped. I pretty much went about doing everything in my power to try and ignore it, until I started reading about how this new shit is gonna please all the old fans; how the band have brought back so much of their old-school vibe. It wasn't just band interviews; fans on forums, Facebook and the landfill that is Youtube's comments section also chipped in ecstatically that this was the case.

So I listened. Yes, there is heaps of old school Mushroomhead in this. Fucking heaps! The keyboards take on a more carnival vibe, and there's even rapping again, for fuck sake! I can't tell you how awesome it is to hear rapping in metal music again (never thought I'd say that). There's a few trying-too-hard-to-be-part-of-the-8-string-crowd tracks which do absolutely nothing for me, and if I'm honest I was enormously surprised at how shit this record isn't (I'm not counting the Adele cover with a dubstep drop in the chorus - I'm just going to blot that out of existence).

But - and it's a big but - jesus chriiiiiist this shit is a mess. J Mann rejoined, but Waylon also remained. I mean no disrespect to any of the vocalists for Mushroomhead, because they are all amazing, but there simply isn't enough room here for three of them. It doesn't help that when Waylon is screaming, he sounds almost identical to Mann. The whole thing that made Mushroomhead work was the unique dynamic between J Mann's lows and Jeffery Nothing's extremely identifiable voice. Waylon is a phenomenal frontman, boasting a veritable arsenal of vocal styles, but there just isn't room on these quirky three or four minuters for three seperate vocalists. Throw in vocal appearances from Skinny's new girlfriend and 10,000 Cadillac's Jus Mic, and everybody is literally fighting for space to spit. It's ridiculous, to be frank.

Nevertheless, I believe that The Righteous And The Butterfly is a step in the right direction for a phenomenally talented band that has been wasting itself on boring redneck metal for nearly a decade. TL;DR version - a million times better than both previous stinkers combined, but still a bit of a mess.

But you gotta admit they still look cool as shit - probably cooler looking than ever, actually.