Tracklist: This is one of my all time favourite albums, largely because of the variety of it. You have some proper heavy metal tracks, like "30/30 - 150" and "Come What(ever) May", but you also have the clean ballards such as "Sillyworld", "Through Glass" and "Zzyxz Rd.", and then you have uncatograisable songs like "Socio" which sounds like Heavy Metal meets dick dale surfer rock, and "Cardiff" which sounds totally like nothing else at all. You never know what's coming in this album the next track could start with an acoustic gutiar chord just as much as it could start with a blast beat and scream.
Vocals and Lyrics: Corey Taylor shows a totally different side of himself in Stone Sour when compaired to Slipknot. The vocals are almost totally clean with barely a scream to be found. The lyrics are definatly a high-point of the album, especially when compaired to the majority of Slipknot songs (some exceptions though). The subject of the lyrics vary widely, including political lyrics: (the title track "Come What(ever) May" is about the bush administration, "Sillyworld" is about corporate America and the degrading of ideals). Taylor's personal life ("Made of Scars", "Zzyxz Rd.") The music industry, and the generation gap ("30/30 - 150", "Through Glass").
Instumentation: Like the rest of the album, this is very varied. from heavy blast beat drumming in "30/30-150" to the piano and acoustic guitars of "Zzyxz rd." The rhythms remain solid throughout. Many of the guitars beats stick to unconventional scales, which helps lend the album an "unusual" sound. The album lacks any truely stand-out solos, but it never falters in it's effective rhythm, and decent solos.
Conclusion: This album is truely exceptional and incrediably under-rated. The real strength of this album is that the truely angry emotional songs are not the agressive ones, but the soft acoustic ones. "Through glass" is a furious rant at pop culture, but delivered with soft style and suvtelty. "Zzyxz rd." is about Corey Taylors alcoholism, and i guarentee more moving than anything you will hear on the radio. In short, if you don't have it, you need to hear this album, it's original, it's different, and it's very good.
