CD Review: Mushroomhead - "The Righteous and the Butterfly" (Megaforce Records)

It’s about both the journey and the destination on Mushroomhead’s The Righteous and the Butterfly, an album that really does save the best for last. Bucking the norm of putting your best foot forward, much of the band’s eighth studio album comes during the second half of the record, which isn’t to say you should be bypassing the first eight or so tracks. The Righteous and the Butterfly  is littered with classic Mushroomhead output – flat out chugging metallers ( “Our Apologies,” Devils Be Damned”) - interspersed with cuts seemingly plucked off the next Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack (“Qwerty”). “Son of 7,” a wonderful display of stomping thrash quarterbacked by epic leads that leap out of the speakers, seems lost in the mix and buried on The Righteous and the Butterfly. Also tucked away neatly in the latter stages of the album is the cacophonous “Worlds Collide,” which finds the band dabbling in all things doom, death, thrash, and symphonic metal, the haunting “Graveyard Du Jour,” which plays like a chilling nursery rhyme used to scare children and “Out Of My Mind,” just a straight up bad ass rock tune. On the contrary, the bands cover of Adele’s “Rumor Has It” is just a mess - their well-remembered cover of Seal’s “Crazy” this is not. When it comes to Mushroomhead’s The Righteous and the Butterfly, it’s not how its starts, it’s how it finishes.

Grade: C+

Go Download: “Son Of 7”