Mushroomhead
XX
(Eclipse Records)

There are a lot of heavy metal bands out there today, but Cleveland-based Mushroomhead does its best to separate itself from the rest.

“XX” is the band’s national debut, and fourth album overall. The group consists of seven musicians who formed in 1993 as a side project.

As the group’s popularity swelled around northern Ohio, it began to sell out area venues and got gigs opening for Marilyn Manson, Anthrax and Gwar.

The album starts out fast and hard, but with weak vocals, it may give the listener a sense of hearing the same old heavy metal. But, by the time the third track starts, you can tell this group has talent.

“Solitaire/Unraveling” shows off how the two vocalists, J Mann and Jeffrey Nothing, accompany one another and at the same time flow with the other members of the band and their instruments.

The guitars, bass and drums all come in at the same time and are really tight with the lyrics. Everything is right on and the song is straight-up solid.

The lyrics on this song are also great. For example: “I’ve got Rembrandt as my right hand and Solo as my pilot/Have you ever been inside of a new masterpiece?”

The next track, “These Filthy Hands,” utilizes an instrument that’s not regularly used in heavy metal music - the keyboard. The eerie sounds it produces definitely make this track, and the record as a whole, original.

The seventh track, titled “The Wrist,” further differentiates the lyrical sounds of the vocalists. J Mann provides the higher vocals, which are much slower and easier to hear, while Nothing sings fast and hard. The styles of these two singers are unique and when they are overlapped, they seem to work well.

Some of the other tracks on this album don’t seem to fit. For example, “Xeroxed” and “Chancre Sore” are tired and old. They don’t add anything to the album.

Another disappointment is that the band doesn’t know how to end a song. The members stop and start again repeatedly, which is all right once, but tends to get tiresome after you hear it six times.

The album ends with a solo by keyboardist Shmotz that sounds like something on a Dave Matthews Band live album combined with a hard-thrashing metal-bash track that ends abruptly.

Mushroomhead has the potential to be the next major heavy metal newcomer. However, the band is guilty of using the same attire gimmicks to try to sell its music as Mudvayne and Slipknot.

But the truth is, it shouldn’t have to.