Mushroomhead – Call The Devil (2024)

September 29, 2024

I’ve been trying to let this one take its time to grow on me before I make any decisions around whether I like it or not, but Call The Devil has failed to make a significant impression on me. This started with the chosen singles, which are dreadful (truly they are), but you can’t judge an entire album by its singles.

To Mushroomhead’s credit there is a lot of different vibes and ideas here. This is one of the added bonuses of having 8 people in the band at any one time (especially when those 8 people completely change every few years lol) – not that having such a large cast of characters has saved Mushroomhead from blandness is the past, but credit is due here. There is a lot going on.

Unfortunately, most of it just isn’t very good. There’s a pile of second rate “Angel Dust b-side core” stuff going on here, which was honestly executed a lot better with the Garmonbozia side project. Vocal-wise, Jackie is great, so is Steve, but the new guy (what new guy? There’s another new guy!??) really grinds my gears, I’m sorry to say.

It’s the fact that Mushroomhead were responsible for albums like M3 that keeps me coming back to these guys. But that band is long gone, like literally lol – and I need to get over that.