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September 9, 2005 > Arts & Entertainment > Staind’s flat new album offers nothing but heartache

Staind’s flat new album offers nothing but heartache

By Chris Pasich | For the Thresher

Staind has enjoyed vast success with its songs, connecting to the public with emotional, self-pitying lyrics and music. Mike Mushak’s guitar has been original enough to keep fans interested in each new album, and while lead singer Aaron Lewis’ voice does not stand out among rock greats like Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger or Audioslave’s Chris Cornell, it is versatile enough to produce successful softer ballads as well as Staind’s better-known hardcore sounds. This roughness always gave Staind’s music a unique and welcome sound.

But, Staind’s new album, Chapter V, proves flat and monotonous. The talent remains, somewhere, but the songwriting lacks the creativity of the band’s earlier work. Staind attempts to combine the best parts of its previous cut, 14 Shades of Grey — the acoustic, emotional guitar — with the somewhat harder but more original tunes produced in its sophomore breakthrough album, Break the Cycle. Unfortunately, the attempt fails and produces music that is nothing more than a watered-down version of earlier themes.

While many of the songs in Chapter V are almost indistinguishable from each other, a few stand out. “Right Here,” for instance, actually succeeds in merging the dissonant styles of their two previous best-selling albums. It remains strongly emotional and gripping, without resorting to melancholy. “Run Away” also combines these elements fairly well, with an original and solid melody. These two songs — Chapter V’s first two tracks — are a welcome departure from the depressing lyrics that are prevalent throughout most of Staind’s music.

After these first tracks, though, the rest of Chapter V reeks of agony and depression. The individual instrumental rhythms clash, unlike Staind’s usual tight beats and melodies. In particular, the instrumentals in “Paper Jesus” and “Devil” are strikingly haphazard, and neither song has any redeeming lyrical insight. Often, Staind’s narratives are nothing more than feeble attempts to rhyme. The guitar and bass fight each other, each trying to establish its own melody.

Listening to Staind’s new music is not painful, but there are simply better artists and more creative songs available — better alternatives to Chapter V’s redundant, generic, alternative rock sound.

The repetition of the same themes, both lyrical and rhythmic, overpowers the album. As usual, the lyrics focus on the troubles of the band members themselves. This gimmick got old in 14 Shades of Grey and by now Staind should have found something new to sing about. Any fan knows the band members’ life stories by now and is craving a new style: new rhythms, new beats, new anything.

Now Staind is just wasting its fans’ time by sounding like a poor man’s Alice in Chains. The band will lose its fan base with more mediocre music like Chapter V. The listeners who want Alice in Chains will listen to Alice in Chains. Those who want the original, more intriguing Staind sound will go back to Break the Cycle, or maybe try the band’s first album, Dysfunction. And, unfortunately, that is all anyone really needs to hear. The rest of their music is just more of the same.

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