The Righteous & The Butterfly

Guttural, loud, raw, raspy, banging, rough, intense, and some other words to say that the new album by Mushroomhead is primal. Their new album is called, “The Righteous & The Butterfly”, though I'm not exactly sure why it's called that but considering the intense metal songs being played on this album, having butterfly in the title is just plain funny. They are an industrial metal band from Cleveland, OH and this marks their eighth studio record that will be released May 13, 2014. There's 14 tracks on the album, all of which are a slap in the face with the amount of energy being put into the songs.

I've heard a lot of metal bands in my time, some are just loud noise, some are loud noise that sound good, and some actually make some loud music and I would have to say that Mushroomhead has to fall into the loud music category. It has a good level of loudness to the songs as the vocals are being belted out in screams, yells, and grunting lyrics. It really is a primal set of songs and that's one of the aspects that makes it great. There's a big difference between taking a song that has someone trying to scream as loud as they possibly can while having the levels on high while recording and having someone that is singing in a loud screaming voice with instruments that are being played loud and hard.  They play their music loud and hard and in doing so the songs come out as loud and hard, and I didn't have my volume at full while listening.

I like that there is a mixture of sounds and flows being used on the songs. For the most part the songs are keeping the same tempo of the fast drums, the guitar riffs, and the raspy loud vocals. But there are other times in the songs that they put in what sounds like a normal guitar chord for a second, the vocals are not being screamed out, but the energy of the songs remain just as potent. There's a few moments where I can hear the audio mixing being put to some of the songs but it's not harsh or disruptive to the songs. What makes up for it is the intense energy of the songs. This album is not one that I was going to get bored while listening to it because it got my attention with the power of the songs. These guys like to really rock out on their songs. Sure there are some rough moments in parts of the songs, but after screaming as much as they do on this album I'm surprised he even has a voice left at the end of the song.