Issue #97: Static-X – Wisconsin Death Trip

Released:  March 23rd, 1999

Recorded:  1998

Genre:  Industrial Metal, Nu-Metal

Record Label:  Warner Bros.

Duration:  43:55

Producers:  Ulrich Wild, Static-X

Personnel

Track Listing

Singles

Why Wisconsin Death Trip is One of My Favorites

As I engaged in my usual background read before writing this, I discovered that frontman Wayne Static died earlier this month, just 3 days shy of his 49th birthday.  Early reports suggested drug overdose, yet family denies this and has commented that he “died in his sleep.”  Wayne might not have been Freddie Mercury or Elvis, but he was responsible for a great record and I’m sorry to see him go at such a relatively young age.

When I first sat down and started brainstorming for this project, Wisconsin Death Trip was definitely on my list.  Then I remember coming around to it and seeing that although I owned on CD (almost all of my actual CDs are packed away in storage so that I could make space for video games!) I had never bothered to “digitally replace” it.  So I passed over it, figuring that maybe it was a fond memory from my teens and perhaps not truly a “favorite album.”  But then something strange happened; I found it tucked away on a USB drive that can’t be more than a few years old, alongside other industrial metal like Godflesh, Pitchshifter, and Strapping Young Lad.  How or why it got there I do not know, I can only assume that I was amassing industrial metal albums for some reason, flung ’em on the flash drive, and somehow forgot all about it.  So I stuck it on my MP3 player and started revisiting it over a couple of long car rides during the last few days.

And you know what?  I was thoroughly blown away.  I remember this being a slamming, even pulverizing record when I was younger (this was one of those CDs that I was hooked on religiously for a couple of months) but I never remember it being this unique.

Unfortunately, Wisconsin Death Trip is either dismissed as watery, copy-cat industrial metal, or either as an album that capitalized on the success of nu-metal and therefore “just another nu-metal record” lost amid the noise.  After giving it a good 4 or 6 listens recently, I have to wonder if its detractors were really paying attention.  What Wisconsin Death Trip really is is a deft combination of industrial metal’s abrasiveness and nu-metal’s unmistakable grooves.  Truthfully, I’ve never heard a combination like this.  I always lumped it in with the industrial side of things as a teenager, but coming back to it, I can definitely see the nu-metal aspects as well, and that’s what makes it such a success.  It’s loud, it’s heavy, it’s distorted, it’s electronic, but it’s also catchy, groovable, rhythmic, and within the boundaries of conventional song structure, elements that “purer” industrial metal sometimes lacks.

The guitars are the first thing to stand out.  They boom, crunch, crush, smash, scrape, grind, and buzz every inch of the way.  All those wonderful things I love about distorted guitars are wrapped up in an almost perfect package.  It’s Psalm 69 without Jourgensen’s obsession with burying rhythmic riffs in endless fuzz, it’s an album full of the amazing guitar work on Skinny Puppy’s “Death,” it’s a distillation of great riffs in the vein of Slayer and Metallica with all the fuzz and filth of The Downward Spiral and Antichrist Superstar.  However, when the bass is too low, even the best riffs can sound thin and tinny.  Although I don’t much notice the bass as a discrete entity in Death Trip, luckily it flawlessly reinforces these monstrous riffs and they come through just as deep and as heavy as they should.  Seriously, this is one of maybe 3 or 4 records that I’d point to in order to best illustrate that crunchy, buzzsaw-type sound that I love about guitars and distortion.

Percussion-wise, Death Trip uses both a mixture of live drums and electronics.  Not only are the rhythms superb (mostly held up by the guitars), but the beats themselves are massive and jarring.  There’s none of that awful mid-range sound to dominate the other instruments, nor is the percussion flat and hollow like so much “traditional,” pre-90s metal.  It’s a full, encapsulating sound that more than adequately evokes the sterile, mechanical, unstoppable force that is industrial music.

Finally, Wayne Static finds plenty of ways to use his voice to good effect.  To match the abrasive, noisy nature of the music and the sort of controlled chaos environment, he typically shouts (while managing to stay in tune) but he also reaches for the occasional grunt or growl.  Mixing the hip-hop influence of nu-metal with early electro-industrial “gothic rapping,” Wayne also lay does some exceedingly rapid vocal tracks that are fairly distinct from actual rapping.

The first 3 tracks get this album off to an adrenaline pumping start.  “Push It” goes the start-stop route with its chugging riff while Wayne utilizes a half-growl.  The explosive, high energy opener leads into “I’m With Stupid,” with some of Wisconsin Death Trip’s heaviest riffing.  The sampling gives it an industrial flavor right off the bat.  Tension builds in the chorus/pre-chorus that resolves itself with a barrage of crunch and Wayne’s rapid-fire, almost unintelligible vocals.  “Bled for Days” establishes an excellent groove, and its inclusion of the End of Days OST was what led me to this album in the first place.  This is the record’s first firm example of industrial sounds blended with stylistically nu-metal song.  More lightning-quick vocals add a pinch of chaos and frenzy to the otherwise steady, mechanical beat.

The next 4 tracks move more towards the industrial half of Static-X’s sound.  “Love Dump” just might be my favorite track; it’s an expert blend of noise and silence.  What starts off as typical industrial noise builds into a Ministry-like track with simple, repeated guitar chords and slightly melodic vocals buried almost completely in the fuzz.  (A lot like Ministry’s work on Filth Pig.)  And then it comes to life in a whole new way where the noise drops off and features Wayne’s modified vocals screaming, juxtaposed with quick fits of guitar.  “I Am” features alternating shouts and growls with a repetitive quality (like industrial), yet instead of going on ad infinitum, it actually builds to a chorus of sorts.  Lots of chaotic guitar work and periods of Wayne’s high-speed vocals make this one of the more experimental tracks on Death Trip, though it’s short enough that it never gets tiresome or monotonous.

“Otsegolation” is another one of my favorites – more awesome grinding guitars with a pronounced background electronic element.  Screeching guitars skip along at an unnerving pace, while Wayne’s distant singing provides contrast with the strange time signature of this piece.  “Stem” is a little mellower and slower, but also seems to employ an unconventional time signature to ensure a touch of weirdness.  Wayne shouts his way through almost groovable riffs, yet just when it seems to get catchy, it adds a beat, or skips a beat, or something.  Sometimes tricks like this annoy the hell out of me, though on “Stem” I find it both interesting and amusing.

“Sweat of the Bud” contains some extremely fast guitar-based rhythms alongside a pounding beat.  There’s a bit of nu-metal feel, though it never really develops enough of a discernible verse-chorus structure to appropriately be called such.  “Fix” plays out a bit like a homage to Ministry’s “Just One Fix.”  It’s extremely repetitive and driven by relatively simple guitar and drums when compared to the rest of the album, though there is a worthwhile breakdown about halfway through.

The next 2 tracks are excellent examples of the industrial/nu-metal fusion.  “Wisconsin Death Trip” grinds along like a noisier, wilder Deftones song with fuzzier Rage Against the Machine riffs.  “The Trance is the Motion” begins with what sounds like a dancey version of the guitars in Korn’s “Blind” with all the crushing power of Manson’s “Kinderfeld.”  The vocals take on a vaguely hip-hop rhythm until the chaotic, overdubbed “chorus” (or what I’m calling the chorus) and at points, Wayne sounds like he’s doing a spot-on slowed down impression of “Ball Tongue.”  And yet with all these comparisons to other songs, this is one of the most unique on the album because of what seems to switch between a hip-hop beat and a more generic dance beat.

Finally we get to “December.”  Decidedly experimental and bordering on ambient, it’s one of the more beautiful “slow weird rock songs” that artists liked to tack onto the end of albums during the decade.  The atmosphere slowly builds with waves of both background and foreground synth, with little beeps and static blips gradually working their way in.  A simple beat eventually follows; first the bass and then percussion.  And then a distant guitar chimes in just before Wayne begins this haunting tune.  The vocals are buried and almost whispered, but they have an ethereal quality to them, like a ghost or a dream.  The drums kick up a notch for a grande, wall of noise sound while the second verse slowly rolls out.  The whole thing is a bit weird and scratchy with a layer or two of static and feedback overlaid atop everything else, but in a way it adds to the pleasantness hidden underneath.

All in all, Wisconsin Death Trip has been one of my favorite albums to revisit and it undoubtedly deserves a mention as one of my favorites of the decade.  I never did pick up another Static-X record, though I have no idea why.  Maybe it’s time, and with Wayne’s passing, it seems all the more appropriate.  I suppose I can understand (though completely disagree with) some of the criticisms leveled at Death Trip, but then again serious critics of metal tend to be biased against anything remotely catchy.  As far as I’m concerned, Wisconsin Death Trip takes some of the harshness of industrial metal and tempers it with bouncy rhythm that any hard rock fan can enjoy.

This album may not go down as a classic, but at least it went platinum within only a couple of years.  When it comes to either the influx of industrial rock or the rise of nu-metal however, Wisconsin Death Trip at least deserves a lofty spot among the greats.  Copy cat?  Fatuous imitation?  Pale shadow of insert band here?  I certainly don’t think so.  I think the word we’re looking for here is underrated!

Written by The Cubist

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Written by The Cubist

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I collect as much video gaming paraphernalia as I can get my hands on, especially when it comes to hardware. With over 40 systems including oldies like the ColecoVision and Intellivision, obscurities like the CD-i and 3DO, and the latest and greatest including the Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, 3DS, and PS Vita, I get easily overwhelmed. Most of the time you can find me firmly nestled sometime between 1985 and 1995 when it comes to my games of choice, but I’m also having a great time seeing what the 8th generation has to offer.

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