Music

Album Review: Limp Bizkit ‘Gold Cobra’

Published

13 years ago

June 27, 2011

There are a handful of bands that incite such a violent reaction as Limp Bizkit. There’s Nickelback, Insane Clown Posse, U2 and that’s all I can really think of off the top of my head. These bands are generally reviled or mocked endlessly and, for some reason, are wildly successful. Nickelback consistently puts out platinum selling albums, ICP continues to somehow afford the ability to make movies and U2 manages to put out the same sounding album over and over again with great success. As for Limp Bizkit, people mock the ever-living hell out of them and they laugh it off all the way to the bank. So, how does the band fare on Gold Cobra, their latest endeavor? Well, check out after the jump for the answer.

After an intro track, the album kicks off with ‘Bring It Back‘, a track that immediately showcases the fantastic production and mixing that will stay true to the entire album. The guitars sound thick and crunchy yet have clarity, the bass is round and deep, the drums solid and cymbals crisp and Fred’s vocals sharp and up front. DJ Lethal’s embellishments and textures are just that, little moments that jump out here and there and fill in the empty spots with great subtlety.

The album, on a whole, sounds fantastic. There is a great diversity in a lot of the tones used by both the guitar and bass, which results in an album that is musically very interesting to listen to. This is especially true in ‘Shotgun‘, where the musical conversation between the guitar and bass is so interesting that it almost shuns out Fred’s vocals, culminating in a ripping guitar solo.

Lyrically speaking, this album does not reach Shakespearean levels nor does it attempt to. The choruses of the songs are often very simple, repetitive and catchy, meant for audiences to sing along with little to no difficulty. For example, in the song ‘Douchebag’, the chorus is “Douchebag/Imma fuck you up/Fuck you, fuck you/Fuck you up!“. Another example is ‘Get A Life‘, where Durst bellows “Get a life!/Get a motherfucking life!/You don’t want to see what I can do with a knife!/You don’t want to be my enemy, I promise you!/If you do, motherfucker bring it on!” Like I said, nothing poetic or grand, but it gets the point across.

The Final Word: Look, this is a Limp Bizkit album. It’s not Paganini or Opeth or Dream Theater. It’s rap rock and it does exactly what it sets out to do. If you’re a fan of Limp Bizkit, go out and get Gold Cobra. You will not be disappointed.

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

2 weeks ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…