Taproot, Disturbed, Chevelle, Unloco
Music As A Weapon II

And here we have an utterly pointless compilation of a few seemingly arbitrarily selected moments from the Music As A Weapon II tour which, if Reprise Records are to be believed, "shot heavy metal across America in the Spring of 2003." In short, it's fourteen tracks of mediocre bands giving uninspired live performances of songs with titles like 'Empty', 'Bruises' and 'Dehumanized. As someone who finds the use of over-emphasised sarcasm for 'comic' effect abhorrent, I don't say the following lightly. Nevertheless, it has to be said:

Oh goody. My life is now complete.

50% of the album is devoted to headliners Disturbed, with the remainder shared more or less evenly among some other also-rans of the dead-on-its-arse nu metal scene. As any fule kno, Disturbed were once a mildly amusing band, when vocalist David Draiman refused to take himself seriously and chose instead to indulge his passion for making stupid noises. Unfortunately, with his second album 'Prayer', Draiman began to think of himself as an artist; the fun went right out the window. Needless to say, the seven tracks on offer here are, insipid, uninspiring and forgettable. Well, six of them are. Just when you think it can't get any worse, they hit you with an oh-dear-god-how-did-that-happen cover of Metallica's 'Fade To Black'.

As well as Disturbed without the funny noises, we have Taproot who sound, well, a bit like Disturbed without the funny noises. Chevelle, on the other hand, sound like Disturbed with neither funny noises nor any ability to play live. And Ünloco? Well, they're as bad as their pointlessly-umlauted name suggests. I'd advise you to avoid this album, but since it's near-impossible to notice when it's actually playing, I doubt it's going to bother you much.