College Times

Media Credit: Courtesy Universal

Slipknot is the best and worst thing that ever happened to Mushroomhead.

Both fall into the general genre of hardcore metal, both wear masks and costumes, and Mushroomhead, after toiling in and around Cleveland since 1993, is finally getting attention. Now, says drummer Skinny, the challenge is overcoming the tag as a copycat band.

“Slipknot is a big slap in the face, if you want to know the truth,” he says. “We used to wear the orange jumpsuits, the gas masks, bondage masks, clown masks, and then they came out with it and just exploded. So everyone thinks we’re just the next installment of Slipknot or Mudvayne. But we don’t look like those guys and we definitely don’t sound like them, so we just kinda roll with it.”

Skinny hopes people dismiss any surface similarities when they digest XX (Filthy Hands/Eclipse Records), Mushroomhead’s national-level debut blend of goth, grunge, rap metal, funk metal, dub, ambient rock and Faith No More-ish grandiosity. The band self-released three other discs dating to 1993.

“We talk about ditching the masks and costumes, but being covered up lets us cut loose more,” Skinny says. “We tried to take away the individuality, to put the music forward.”

Members of Slipknot have uttered similar words. But while Slipknot tries beating and bludgeoning its fans and competition – not to mention themselves, Mushroomhead explores the finer textures of aggression with a more lush and varied sound.

Fans initially lumped them into rap metal, then new metal. Singer Jeffrey Nothing would take the stage in a white wedding dress, long since ditched in favor of a black one. The eight-man Mushroomhead was little more than a regional novelty, occasionally performing with Marilyn Manson, Type O Negative, Gwar and other theatrical heavyweights, until Slipknot broke out of Iowa and launched modern thrash to the mainstream.

In concert, the constant flow of sound and imagery is a Mushroomhead hallmark, Skinny says, but it wasn’t a quick-sell formula.

“People were totally appalled by us at first,” he says. “There was nothing like it at the time, maybe not ahead of its time but just something nobody was ready for. (Kurt) Cobain was still alive and people were like ‘Hey, this isn’t flannel – what are these freaks doing?’”

Mushroomhead caught a buzz with the larger resurgence of new metal and has since sold out every local show for the past four years. Now, Skinny says, the key is to keep moving forward long after the inevitable end of the trend.

“We’re going to get tons of people saying ‘Oh, it’s a gimmick,’ but anyone who knows music can tell we’re not jumping on a bandwagon,” he says. “It’s just a matter of getting them to open up their minds enough to pop in our CD.”

Mushroomhead w/Mower, Pinhed, Ikonoklast, FoulMouth, Dresden, Dehumanizer, Deceptor, Venue of Scottsdale, November 30, 5 p.m., $20

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