This sounds exactly like, well, Korn. And Coal Chamber do not even attempt to pull the wool over your head. It's like they know it's a complete ape job and they're laughing right in your face. I can just see that Roadrunner Exec smirking as he cashes his check. If Coal Chamber don't care enough, why should I? You guessed it. I don't. For a genre that is progressively wearing out its welcome, these "hip-hopped" Korny "nu-metal" bands (Spin Magazine's term, not mine) are all treading the same water. Talky/rappy/processed vocals over a uniformly similar down-tuned rhythmic clicking, which is supposed to be the hip sound these days I guess. The term for this is redundant, and maybe I'm guilty of promulgating some clone bands myself, but this is a sound I resented from the beginning (fine...don't believe me). Of the slew of Korn followers (you know them), only the Deftones--cribbing elements from aforementioned sound with a number of more esoteric influences, creating a unique mix-- are worthy of exemption when the culling scythe comes swinging. But I digress. Coal Chamber suck. And Roadrunner Records continues its spiral into obscurity...

Review by Lee Steadham

Review date: 11/1998

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