XIII marked the point where Mushroomhead finally had the financial backing to deliver an all-out polished, nu-metal with bells on full length record. Their first "international" LP, XX, was a compilation of tracks the band had self-released in their early years, so XIII was the group's first album whilst being in the limelight. It is quite the departure from the jumbled, beautiful clusterfuck of XX and the records that came before it, but absolutely nowhere near as bland and grating as Savior Sorrow and the other records that followed it.
Yes, XIII stands apart from anything else in the Mushroomhead canon, in its own perfect little storm. I don't like to think of it as the sound that represents Mushroomhead, but it is also a solid album and was a massive part of my early teens. It is also one of those albums that gets better as it goes on. Sure, it lulls a bit in the middle, but from track eight to the end is just pure belter after a belter. Closing tracks, "Our Own Way" and "Destroy The World Around Me" enter territory in the God Tier that the band would never stray into again. Top it all off with a cover of Seal's "Crazy" and you're laughing.
It might have marked the beginning of the end for this band, but XIII is a solid album nonetheless.
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