Stone Sour — Stone Sour

Feeling the need to take off the mask and get a little more melodic, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has reanimated his old band (they broke up when he hightailed it to The Big SK), Stone Sour, for another kick at the can. Apparently the screaming and prison-issue overalls just weren’t letting him express his true self, whereas this band (that no-one cared about before) does. Surprisingly, Stone Sour doesn’t outright suck as much as one would expect. That doesn’t mean it’s good — it’s just not as sucky. Kicking off with the reasonably heavy "Get Inside," the album plows through a few stompers before winding down to a crooning middle and an eventual pick up in pace near the finish line. With this project, Taylor’s voice is smooth, making the transition to actual singing well and the overall product isn’t so far removed from his bread ën’ butter sound to piss off the Nu Metallers, which is a plus. However, with all of the detuned guitars, samples and scratching, Stone Sour is little more than Slipknot Lite. And seeing as how their last album tanked, how badly do we need the Aspartame version?

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