Is there still time for Limp Bizkit to reclaim old glories? As of right now, it has been six years since Fred Durst and company released a new album (Results May Vary was the last one, if you missed it), but about ten since the band blew so hard with Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water that they singlehandedly smothered the nu metal craze that ruled modern rock between 1998 and 2001. Unlike so many other great fads, an untimely death was not the end of nu metal as was the case so many times before, tastes just shifted; the kids who liked and felt a kinship to the music discovered other things that captured their attention and people just stopped caring. Most of the bands of that scene began exploring new sounds and ideas (Korn, most notably) or broke up altogether but Limp Bizkit has not grown in the slightest and it shows on Gold Cobra – the band's new album which acts like the last ten years didn't happen.
After a cacophonous, white noise belch (“Introbra”) to sound their return, Limp Bizkit crashes into “Bring It Back” with all the cocksure attitude and behaviorally questionable zeal the band flaunted in its prime. Those who remember Limp Bizkit's glory days (like when Fred Durst could be found climbing out of a toilet on stage during the Family Values Tour) will feel their chests swell a bit at the recollection, and that feeling is supported well by Wes “Back In The Band Again” Borland's sludgy guitar lines that kick off in “Bring It Back” but, at the exact same time, the holes in the facade begin to show. On a subjective level, the band has remained current here (references to wikipedia and other such 'new-fangled' devices help with that) but the band really shows its vintage on a colloquial level as references to “hittin' that” and “workin' this bitch” get dusted off and utilized liberally. It's fun for a minute, but quickly starts to feel a little silly; especially when listeners remember that the guy on the mic dribbling them out is over forty.
Does anyone else smell a midlife crisis? Hilariously, the only one who seems to not see the comedy in such antiquated, sophomoric posturing is the singer himself; when Durst boasts, “There's still no shit like this,” halfway through “Bring It Back,” he seems to be unaware that there's a really good reason for that and the only thing it's easy to feel about the song is sorry for its singer.
As soon as the pathos inspired by “Bring It Back” sets in with listeners, it really colors the other songs on the album. While Gold Cobra's title track sounds great initially and “Get A Life,” “Shotgun” and “Douche Bag” all recall the great times of early millennial aggressive rock, it's hard to not notice that every microtone of each sounds exactly the same as Limp Bizkit did a decade ago; and that gets pretty mawkish and boring pretty quickly. It's new music, but that doesn't mean it doesn't sound stale.
Artist:
www.limpbizkit.com/
www.myspace.com/limpbizkit
www.facebook.com/limpbizkit
www.twitter.com/limpbizkit
Album:
Gold Cobra comes out on June 28, 2011 via Interscope Records. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
