Mushroomhead Album: “Savior Sorrow”

Tired riffs? This album is a showcase of musical range. The entire spectrum of musical instruments is used in this 12-track epic album. True, the boyz have offered a few more melodic tracks, but what a beautiful blend of the hard and raw with soul-searching, searing rhythms of a Mushroomhead nature. You're not going to find Def Leppard power-ballads, or old-man-Lars-just-looking-for-a-steady-paycheck patterns. This is a unique blend that holds your attention all the way through. Savior Sorrow is not XIII, but Mushroomhead set a high bar with their last release that will likely never be exceeded. I'm not going to compare the two, because it isn't fair. Instead, compare Savior Sorrow with the crap you hear on the radio today, and tell me that this isn't a 5-star masterpiece.

It's been a long time from their terrific last album and it shows in this record which sounds a lot more developed in sound than the previous records. It's cleaner, heavier in parts, and in playing I think it is a large step better.

The album itself in terms of being an album is a success for them in that the songs are all very good: it's inventive enough in parts with some interesting timing and changes, lots of good heavy work and the new vocalist fits in well, as much as I liked the old guy.

The only slight negative it that it doesn't have the stand out tracks I liked so much previously like becomming cold, sun doesn't shine etc... But that's OK as you can't expect them to just regurgitate old stuff. What they have done though is a lot of good songs.

Stand outs for me are:

'Simple Survival'- one with that Faith no More music sound but again sounding great with the 2 strong tiered Vocals.

'Erase the Doubt'- works well with a strong sound through it and again the vocal switch is brilliant on it - the balance between the singers with this one is perfect.

Other good tracks are 'Save Us', 'Burn', 'Just Pretending', 'Cut Me', 'The Fallen', but the whole record is all good - very professional and well done through.

5 stars as a fan of the band.

Review number 44. First thing I thought to myself when I saw a couple of Mushroomhead videos were, they remind me of Slipknot but with better music. Just saw this over-the-top metal eight piece {is it?} play a club on their current U.S. tour. Had a lot of fun at this band's concert, have to admit. What is this, like their sixth album? I have some catching up to do here. Tunes off this current opus of theirs I dug the most were the rhythmic opener "12 Hundred", the in-your-U-G-L-Y mug "Tattoo", the familiar sounding "Just Pretending", the almost scary "Cut Me" and (hard to believe) the disc's actual ballad "Embracing The End". Some of their influnces were obviously Alice in Chains and Ministry. Should appeal to fans of Mudvayne, Korn, System Of A Down and Static X. Recommended.

Great direction after changing singers. The first album after a lineup change espessially singers is always a pivotal time for any band. Well Mushroomhead jump ahead with yet another great release, heavy, good riffs, cool lyrics and overall just a great album. Looking forward to the next one.

I entirely disagree with the negative few that think this album is sub-par due to the abscence of J. Mann. When i first heard Waylons voice, it was at a live show. Needless to say, I was blown away. He has a way of harmonizing with Jeffrey Nothing in a way that J mann could not. Live performances like "becoming cold" and "Never let it go" show this clearly. As far as the CD goes, "1200", "Simple Survival" and "Save Me" further support this.

First hearing the songs i was in awe of the lyrics, and that the melodies are similar to ones on earlier albums like Superbuick. If you perfered XIII to the earlier albums, you may not favor this one as much. However, still check it out, and i gaurantee you wont be dispointed.