Static-X's
Shadow Zone seems to have arrived via wormhole from 1998. In songs like "Kill Your Idols," "Destroy All," and "Monster,"
Wayne Static -- who's never sounded more like
Korn's
Jonathan Davis -- yells "My head's a loaded gun" and "Breathing, killing, seething, willing" over thudding thrash busied up with electronic fuzz. Producer
Josh Abraham (Orgy,
Crazy Town) buries the drumming behind a wall of guitars, and by mid-album, "The Only"'s foray into
Stabbing Westward-style electro-industrial provides depth by heading in a different direction. (Even here,
Static's vocal still resembles
Davis.) Reliance on formula has always been admissible in metal, and
Static-X are indeed formulaic on
Shadow Zone, although as the album draws to a close, "So" and "Invincible" debut some sort of double-track effect on
Static's voice, which makes him sound like
Layne Staley instead of
Davis. ~ Johnny Loftus