Incubus

With Morning View, Ozzfest veterans Incubus turn the nu-metal magic trick of super-heavy-meets-melody (with the required element of agility) but there is also a warmth that sets them apart from their peers. Morning View is loud in all the right places and, characteristic of the post-Creed landscape, quietly textured in a whole lot more.

For a new-metal band competing in a field of alpha males with pierced, sloping brows, the
supple, even delicate Incubus have an awful lot of yin in their yang. Unlike Staind, who
require a suspension of disbelief that they are, essentially, macho crybabies, and Crazy
Town, who probably tinge their mook-hop with Orientalism so they can score with Asian
strippers, the coolest thing about Incubus is the way they come front-and-cente... More >

This late entry shot up on the outside of our annual Young White Males in Extremis sweepstakes over Static-X (nuevo no wave), P.O.D. (plodding in riddim), Five for Fighting (I forget), and heavy favorites Staind, who seemed so sincerely depressed I couldn't bear to add to their woes. Incubus's wrinkle on awful points up how old-fashioned the death-metal and rap-fusion approaches to hard rock have become. The new menace is prog-variegated structures, tempo shifts, lyric interludes, DJ flava, and (daringly) love songs. This nets a lovely eight-minute closer featuring Steve Vai's "ko-kyu," which sounds like a koto to me. It also nets many mediocre pop songs with pretensions. (Grade - C+)