Band:	40 Below Summer
Album:	Side Show Freaks
Style:	Nu metal
Release date:	1999

01. Suck It Up
02. 5 Lb Bag
03. All About You
04. Sunburn
05. Little Lover
06. United
07. Disease
08. 2 Fisted
09. I'm So Ugly
10. I'm Still Bleeding
11. Rejection
12. Step Into The Side Show

Have you ever wanted to be Korn so badly that you just? you know, ruined your whole album?

The year was 1999. I was still wearing short pants and believed Ozzy Osbourne to be an Australian rapper who was in some way affiliated with Christina Aguilera (shut up, I was five), so the fact that bands like Limp Bizkit, Orgy, and Papa Roach achieved such immense success is all on you old geezers. I fully understand, in any case, where a rough-and-tumble group of lads like 40 Below Summer might get the idea that unloading high school trauma into an array of mic effects and Jenga-stacking naughty words on top of very sharp inhalations could be their ticket to a slot on the Emerging Artists Stage at Woodstock '99. It wasn't, but damned if they didn't try.

Vocalist Max Illidge (get it? 'Cause they're Ill to the Max?) doesn't spare the rod when it comes to his Jonathan Davis impersonation. Granted, he does actually use words to "express" his point, but it's only a matter of time before you get the obligatory "bmh-tah-sshshshh-mkkfmpa-roooooohhhkxxx-fvvh" rabid animal shakedown. For me, the vocals absolutely kill the album. If you can listen to Limp Bizkit then you can listen to this, but the threadbare stabs at pained emotion, the shameless bad-boy posturing, and the nasal quavering just vomit incompetence all over an otherwise promising album. On many occasions it sounds no more threatening or personal than The Aquabats' nu metal parody song. There is a way to make Jonathan Davis's whiny, self-pitying, angst-ridden snorting sound appropriate for band-fronting, and really the only way to do that is to actually be Jonathan Davis (and he doesn't even get it right half the time).

The deadpan, utterly bored backing vocals in "All About You" sum up the listener's experience. "Do you really? Do you really? Do you really?" delivered with such little emotion or enthusiasm sounds nearly as sarcastic as I feel after all that aimless grunging. The chugging, bludgeoning guitars put up a good fight, but all the semi-original riffage and competent bass work in the world can't overpower those macho verses. Not to belabor this point or anything, but? my goodness, there's so much Korn imitation on this album. The real shame is that Side Show Freaks isn't entirely laughable crap. Why is that a shame, you ask? Because there are some genuinely good ideas in here, whole songs that could be saved, riffs and patterns and melodies that could be smoothed out, a half-album at least of material that would make for an accomplished and enjoyable release, and it's all wasted thanks to Max Power over here.

In the interest of shooting down accusations of bias, I'll point out that Korn have done a few truly fantastic albums, I still listen to Slipknot, and if Fred Durst had never, ever existed (ever), I'd probably be listening to Limp Bizkit right now as well. Bands like Ill Niño, Spineshank, Mushroomhead, and American Head Charge have all done some halfway-decent material as well, and I do enjoy Static-X quite a bit. Even my beloved The SLoT have recorded a goodly amount of material in a similar style to what 40 Below Summer attempt to crank out. I DO believe it is possible to play this kind of music well - but this is not an example of that.