STATIC-X — Shadow Zone (review)

STATIC-X — Shadow Zone album cover Album · 2003 · Industrial Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
martindavey87
With nu metal being at its peak in 2001, it’s no surprise that Static-X’s album that year, ‘Machine’, gave them a huge mainstream push and garnered them a bigger fan base than before. Looking to capitalize on that success (and apparently with record label pressure to boot), it’s even less of a surprise that their third album, 2003’s ‘Shadow Zone’ picks up where its predecessor left off.

While there is a slightly more melodic emphasis to this album than previous releases, ‘Shadow Zone’ is still an unrelenting assault of industrial grooves and pounding, jackhammer guitar riffs, sounding massively overproduced to help make the music as big and beefy as possible. The songs are well written, and Wayne Static’s unique blend of singing, shouting, grunting, and whatever other random noises he makes, helps give the band a bit of their own identity (although, there are a couple of instances where he sounds reminiscent of Korn’s Jonathan Davis).

All the tracks on ‘Shadow Zone’ are very short in duration, with only three of them barely scraping by the four-minute mark by mere seconds, however, this makes the album easy to digest, and while some of the songs are catchier than others, none of them have time to drag on, making this album flow effortlessly. And an abundance of electronic effects give the music a great ambience and vibe.

Songs like ‘Shadow Zone’, ‘Monster’, ‘Destroy All’, ‘New Pain’, ‘Kill Your Idols’, ‘The Only’ and the melodic and eerie ‘So’ are all highlights that make this album worth checking out. While nu metal’s day at the top were Static-X’s best realistic chance at mainstream success, ‘Shadow Zone’ is still a great listen for industrial fans, and any metal fans that like their music intense, heavy and accessible might enjoy this too.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Violent Delights Hardcore Punk
GALLEONS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Pure Negative Attitude Hardcore Punk
FREEHOWLING
Buy this album from MMA partners
Inequiem Hardcore Punk
CICADIA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Cemetery Symmetry Hardcore Punk
HUMBLE ABODE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sadistic Memoirs Of A Psychopath Deathcore
CONSUME THE ASSAILANT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Galleons - Electric Emotions
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
Galleons - Elsewhere (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
Galleons - Neon Dreams (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
Galleons - I Travel East As Fievel Goes West Pt. 1 - Official Lyric Video
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
FREEHOWLING - SCARS FT. AARON MATTS (TEN56.) [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
FREEHOWLING
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed