From out of my f*cked up past, I only remember some vague things. Some being minor changes, but others being very important, that took my life into a new direction. Some examples are: the game Rollercoaster Tycoon, which made me addicted with rollercoasters. The death of a teacher, new friends and thing like that. Those however were very important, such as there are less important things. One of them was a car drive towards a friends house. His mother was driving while he and me were listening to music. I was 10, he was 9 and we were both listening to Limp Bizkit’s new CD. I was very unknown by this music, mainly listening to techno and trance. He however had the full CD with a sh*tload of rap-metal songs. We mainly listened to My Generation, because it was cooool.
Now that I think back of it, I’m not ashamed of having done something like that. Everyone needs a start of a new branch of music, and this was along with Linkin Park and Slipknot the band I started with. However, as I still enjoy those 2 other bands I listed, I can say that I probably don’t know worse bands than Limp Bizkit.
Fred Durst, vocalist and frontman, has probably the worst voice that a band has ever had. His rapping skills are supbar, and his singing sounds very whiny, as if he’s nothing but a 12 year old angsty kid. His lyrics prove that he has the mind of such a person. Randomly cussing, which stray far from being intelligent.
Hotdog (the song) has 46 f*ck’s in the couplets, and the choruses (which are stolen from NIN’s closer) feature also some aggressive sentences.
Full Nelson is another typical example, in which Fred talks about being bullied. The song is meant to be heavy, but the addition of Fred rapping makes it more laughable than heavy. The song ends on a shameful attempt to be cool, as Fred’s throws out some F-bombs.
Ok, so we know Fred is a douche, but what about the instrumentation. Although it’s obvious that the instrumentation falls behind the shrieks of Fred overpowering everything, there is some decent talent found in here. Guitarist “Wes Borland” is one of those underrated nu-metal guitarists. Although he mainly sticks to power chords, he has a decent feeling. Drummer John Otto and Bassist Sam Rivers stick to the rhythm. Nothing special. DJ Lethal is however a great adding to the band, with nice effects through the songs. He should however stick away from those stupid scratch moments.
One thing that made Limp Bizkit infamous were the angsty rap-metal songs.
Hot Dog,
Full Nelson,
My Generation (no, it’s not a tribute of The Who’s classic masterpiece) and both of the
Rollin’ versions, are all rap-included distorted nu-metal songs. All of them are however poorly executed with the endless amount of F-bombs and other cussing. As I said, Fred is a horrible rapper, and even a more horrible vocalist. If Fred (with his lyrics) would be replaced by actually nu-metal masters, such as Chino Moreno, or Corey Taylor, the songs would be much more decent. It’s sadly not true.
Not only did Limp Bizkit record an amount of angsty nu-metal songs, they recorded some rap songs too.
Getcha Groove On is a song with a hip-hop beat present on it. The verses are switched between Limp Bizkit and Xzibit, rapping like crazy. Sadly, this experiment turns out to be even worse than Limp’s bland attempts to create heavy songs.
Livin’ It Up is no difference, except for the fact that the chorus is more metal based, with the distorted guitars.
Luckily Limp Bizkit thought of some more serious melodic songs.
My Way is a single you probably all heard, but it’s a good one. Fred talks in the verses as if he is just about to begin a fight with someone, and has better lyrics than in other songs. The chorus is more reminiscent of Linkin Park than any other work, and it works incredibly well. Although the song gets bland after several listens, it’s a good effort.
The One is a less known song of them, but just as
My Way it’s a pleasant calm listen. If they could only not include the terrible secret track.
Hold On is the third soft track, but doesn’t appeal as much as the other 2. It never really stands out, and Fred’s vocals, which were decent on the other tracks, are awful as ever.
The biggest surprise is another single,
Boiler. The song starts with gloomy effects before suddenly kicking into a slow metal riff. The verse sounds frantic, yet it doesn’t feel as angsty as the other songs. The chorus feature Fred both on background humming and foreground singing. After the second verse, the song breaks down into a more calm riff, while building up to the last chorus. The thing that makes this song incredible appealing is the frantic sphere around it. Just like the video clip (which was pretty awesome), and as the song name suggests, the sphere feels very uncomfortable. However, it feels very powerful too, just like Deftones
Passenger.
After all, I can’t say I’m very pleased when listening to this CD. It feels very immature, save for a few tracks, and nothing is really catchy. Fred’s lyrics and voice, make me not want to listen to it, just as the generic instrumentation. There are some more mature moments on this CD, but they are short-lived. I don’t recommend buying this CD, which you probably not will since it’s quite a few years old.
Top 3 songs:
1. Boiler
2. My Way
3. The One
Songs I don’t care for:
My Generation
Full Nelson
Rollin’ (both versions)
Getcha Groove on
It’ll be Ok
Hold On
Livin’ It Up
