Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

Taproot

Music As A Weapon II

Label: Reprise Records Release Date: 22/03/2004

lanky by Nick Lancaster. June 7th, 2004

And here we have an utterly pointless compilation of a few seemingly arbitrarily selected moments from the Music As A Weapon II tour which, if Reprise Records are to be believed, "shot heavy metal across America in the Spring of 2003." In short, it's fourteen tracks of mediocre bands giving uninspired live performances of songs with titles like 'Empty', 'Bruises' and 'Dehumanized. As someone who finds the use of over-emphasised sarcasm for 'comic' effect abhorrent, I don't say the following lightly. Nevertheless, it has to be said:

Oh goody. My life is now complete.

50% of the album is devoted to headliners Disturbed, with the remainder shared more or less evenly among some other also-rans of the dead-on-its-arse nu metal scene. As any fule kno, Disturbed were once a mildly amusing band, when vocalist David Draiman refused to take himself seriously and chose instead to indulge his passion for making stupid noises. Unfortunately, with his second album 'Prayer', Draiman began to think of himself as an artist; the fun went right out the window. Needless to say, the seven tracks on offer here are, insipid, uninspiring and forgettable. Well, six of them are. Just when you think it can't get any worse, they hit you with an oh-dear-god-how-did-that-happen cover of Metallica's 'Fade To Black'.

As well as Disturbed without the funny noises, we have Taproot who sound, well, a bit like Disturbed without the funny noises. Chevelle, on the other hand, sound like Disturbed with neither funny noises nor any ability to play live. And Ünloco? Well, they're as bad as their pointlessly-umlauted name suggests. I'd advise you to avoid this album, but since it's near-impossible to notice when it's actually playing, I doubt it's going to bother you much.

  • 1
    Nick Lancaster.'s Score
Log-in to rate this record out of 10
Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025


  • Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing



Left-arrow

Yellowcard

Ocean Avenue

Mobback
8487

Hell Is For Heroes

Transmit Disrupt

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound's Albums of the Year 2025

  • 106149
  • news


    Why Music Journalism Matters in 2024

  • 106145

    news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143
  • news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141

    news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139
  • Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138

    Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137
  • Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136
MORE


    feature


    Radiohead's In Rainbows: the fans' verdict

  • 27997
  • DiScover


    ReDiScover: Isis

  • 14643

    DiScover


    DiScover: Fuck Buttons

  • 24362
  • feature


    DiS questions Björk about Volta and beyond

  • 95741

    Takeover


    10 Things To Not Expect Your Record Producer To...

  • 93724
  • feature


    Drowned in Sound's 50 albums of 2008

  • 44086

    feature


    Saul Williams: "I desire to live within a natio...

  • 9319
  • Albums of the Year


    Drowned in Sound's Favourite Albums of the Year...

  • 102034
MORE

Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2025 DROWNED IN SOUND