Wisconsin Death Trip
A genre-bending sonic onslaught, this disc is not for the faint-hearted. Static-X skillfully blend angry staccato guitar, dark metallic noise, and mutating synthesizer washes to construct an ominous (though occasionally humorous) wall of sound. Lead vocalist Wayne Static's high-energy delivery alternates from whisper to roar on tracks such as "Bled for Days" and "I Am," and he often uses his voice as a potent rhythmic sound effect, as on "Push It" and "Sweat of the Bud." Tony Campos's distorted bass riffs and drummer Ken Jay's confident beats add a human feel to the mechanical rhythms, adroitly creating the tight grooves of "Otsegolation" and "Fix," as well as the rigid swing in "Stem." Wayne Static and Koichi Fukuda skillfully combine guitars and keyboards on "The Trance Is the Motion" to produce crashing waves of sound, while their programming on "December" results in a more subdued piece to close the album.--Mark McCleerey