Monster Magnet - God Says No
(A&M, 2001)

The album cover in all honesty rocks, the back depicting the band decked out in leather, looking like they just killed your dog, and you're next. Very misleading. Monster Magnet, when they rock, they truly are the gods of chug metal, the purveyors of doom riffery. When they decide that they are the best thing since the invention of the wheel, they spew out psychedelic nonsense that numbs your nervous system like an overdose of novocaine. God Says No rocks about a quarter of the time. The rest of the album falls short due to experimentalist and pretentious clack that the band passes off as music. They aren't fooling anyone. Light years away from the metal brilliance of their previous album, Powertrip, Monster Magnet have soporifically dumped this torpid mess upon us. Yet, a few songs do rock, if only slightly, like the two openers, Melt and Heads Explode, and the organ dominated Kiss Of The Scorpion. The only problem is that it all reminds me of rave music set to a rock beat: it's lifeless. What happened on the pathetic sleepfest Queen of You, the absolutely embarrasing Take It, and the lame industrial failure Silver Future? Monster Magnet have pulled a modern day Def Leppard and succumbed to technology, but at least Def Leppard sold records. Monster Magnet are still wading in their own private gene pool, oblivious to the world around them.

Rating: 1/5