Dysfunction

Staind

Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst fell in love with Staind so hard that he coproduced their major-label debut. This fact should be endorsement enough for the Massachusetts-based quartet's target audience. Although not as heavy on hip-hop influences, singer Aaron Lewis's guttural, dragged-through-the-mud vocals dig into the meaty guitar wall and thrash around the speakers like Durst's band. Dysfunction's all-you-can-eat buffet of decibels grows a bit wearisome by the end of the album, but a couple of numbers stand up and demand to be noticed. "Just Go" boasts a classically sludgy Mudhoney-like groove before settling into an uncoiling murmur à la Judas Priest. The well-executed moshpit-ready "Mudshovel" gleefully cops from Alice in Chains' psychedelic leanings. Staind's hard-rock epistles are certain to gather the band a devoted following. --Jason Josephes

Dysfunction Album: