Taproot – Plead The Fifth

Label: Victory Records

Albums like this make me really dissapointed that nu metal ended up becoming so unfasionable, because when it’s done right like this it’s actually really…well…cool. Taproot’s 5th album is very much a continuation of the band’s legacy of nu metal that isn’t wrong, boasting all the good songwriting of yesturyear. It makes me want to spike my hair up and get some tribal ink! Maybe even take up skateboarding again!

While it is by no means perfect, and a lot of the time it can fall into the trap of predictable nu metal songwriting (clean verse, shout chorus, rinse, repeat), the basic catchyness of a lot of the material and the groove within many of the twangy riffs is more than enough to carry the album. Songs like Game Over, Fractured (Everything I Said Was True), and 911ost are perfect example of the marriage of heavy and gentle that Taproot employ, and doing so in a way that is, while predictable, much better than most of the self indulgent over simplistic stuff of the nu metal days.

Glad that the band have stuck to their guns and not “modernised” like bands like Papa Roach or 36 Crazyfists.

8/10

Eyelicker