Send "Mushroomhead " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 What is it about the Midwest that makes its metal heads so sullen? By nature, heavy metal isn’t a shiny happy genre, but the headbangers in America’s breadbasket have the gloomy game on lock (Morrissey, eat your vegetarian heart out). Is it the weather? The winter drags, and it has snowed as late as May in downstate Illinois. Perhaps it’s the endless void along highways like Indiana’s I-65, which beg you to pull over for a dish of white rice just to liven things up. It could be the fluorescent abyss in any number of decaying strip malls. All of that, plus the unsettling feeling that some of these towns could be wiped off the planet without the world blinking an eye. It’s enough to make you and seven of your closest friends hide behind masks for a while.Mushroomhead hails from Cleveland, but Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children‘s dirt-churning take on metal recalls an overcast day in a town that could be anywhere from Dubuque, Iowa, to Indiana, Pennsylvania. It’s a doomy sound, if not quite doom metal (too fast) or death metal (too tonal). Look at those titles for proof: “Your Demise”. “Darker Days”. “Slaughterhouse Road”. It’s not all low end whiplash, however—these men have obviously spent time as kids walking the Wal-Mart aisles, absorbing the meat-and-potatoes radio rock that dominates the middle of the dial airwaves in the region. The elephant in the room is the surface similarity to that other masked Midwestern outfit, but the older Mushroomhead attempt to be even more multidimensional. On Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, there are waifish fake strings and film noir piano joined at the hip with cavernous bellows and gratuitous DJ scratches. And speed lovers they may be, they’re not in any rush either, as the itchy “Harvest in the Garden” takes nearly a minute and a half to get going....full text |
| Ultimate-guitar |
| Sound: Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children – a quirky title inspired by the 80’s comic book of the same name – does take various twists in turns thematically/emotionally and does indeed relay a bit of a storybook feel. That being said, the seventh album by the alt-metal band Mushroomhead isn’t necessarily a huge musical departure. What does stand out on the 12-track record is the fact that drummer Skinny has taken his playing up a notch, which allows for the often-chugging guitars to have a much more interesting backing. The core songwriting doesn’t leave a huge impression upon the first listen, but the variety of rhythmic movement and overall lyrical content does keep things moving along smoothly. The opening track “Come On” was also selected as the band’s first single, and it’s easy to understand why in terms of commercial success. Out of all of the songs on Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children, “Come On” is the one that screams “anthem.” With an in-your-face chorus that could easily be the theme song for any sporting/wrestling event (if they’re okay with the F bomb, that is), “Come On” will appeal to plenty of listeners by its bravado alone. While it’s not the most impressive in terms of its arrangement, it should undoubtedly open some doors for Mushroomhead. Elsewhere on the album, results are often inconsistent. You do have a good number of tracks that follow the usual alt-metal format, but there are some gems in the bunch. “Burn The Bridge” showcases some very interesting time signature choices, with the guitars and the drums seemingly doing their own thing at a few moments. “I’ll Be Here” incorporates children singing “la la la” within the chorus (making for a somewhat creepy vibe), while “Harvest The Garden” features an intro that is driven by Skinny’s insanely cool primal drum beats....full text |
| Blogcritics |
| Now in their seventeenth year together, Mushroomhead have proven time and again that their name was well chosen. Like the hardy fungi of their moniker, this is a band who have shown a remarkable ability to adapt and thrive in the most unfriendly conditions imaginable. At shows around Cleveland in the early nineties, the group was originally formed by guys who were moonlighting from their regular gigs. The masks and costumes, not to mention the music, was all a part of the experimental nature of the project. A few years later, Slipknot appeared with a very similar approach and style, and broke through immediately. It looked like Mushroomhead had jumped on the Slipknot bandwagon to those who were unfamiliar with their history. A feud inevitably erupted between fans of the two groups, which has only recently been resolved. Add the numerous line-up changes, troubles with record labels and the difficulties inherent in releasing material themselves, and you have all the reasons in the world for a group to just call it quits. Not Mushroomhead though. Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children is their eighth full-length release, and their second on Megaforce. Much like their previous effort for the label, titled Savior Sorrow (2006), these alt-metal pioneers focus more on the metal than the alt-. Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children is full of huge guitars, bombastic riffs, and throat-shredding vocals. Upon first listen, the album appears to be just a big, ugly slab of chaos. It is only later, after a couple of spins, that the twelve cuts reveal themselves to be well thought out chapters of a decidedly menacing take on the world. Opening track “Come On” is aggro in the extreme. Over a brutal, proto speed-metal riff, they chant “Come on, do you really wanna fuck with me…tonight” as a challenge nobody in their right mind would take them up on....full text |
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