Mushroomhead ‎– Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children (2010)

May 14, 2020

By the time Beautiful Stories dropped in 2010 I’d lost most if not all interest in what was once my favourite band. I remember my mate Pip played it in his car and it seemed like more of the same badly mixed, lazy, phoned in redneck metal with keyboards. However, I’m not sure if it’s because the band has fallen even further into a pit of absolute cess in recent times, but I can now look back at this record almost positively. Almost.

The mix is still an absolute deformity. That cannot be argued. Whoever mixed this thing needs to be sacked, immediately. However, it’s worth noting that some of Waylon’s strongest vocal lines are on this album. I was never the biggest fan but I have to give props here. And now that they are gone, I pine for the heavy guitars of riffmaster Gravy, and the clanking bass of Benis. Both are heavily present on this record, and their current absence is easily noticed. I have to ask myself though: if you strip away the masks and the history of this band, and let the record stand alone, is Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children still a good album? The answer, my friends, is no.