Album review: Stone Temple Pilots, High Rise EP

NZ Herald·

4 Dec, 2013 04:30 PM2 mins to read

Album cover for High Rise EP.

Sometimes things happen that really shouldn't. Like that time Linkin Park recorded a rap-rock EP with Jay-Z. Or when the nu-metal's act's in-house rapper Mike Shinoda released a full-length hip-hop album.

Or when Linkin Park didn't just break up already.

Noticing a trend here? Yet another Linkin Park associate has done the unthinkable, with front man Chester Bennington joining forces with Stone Temple Pilots after the band "fired" singer Scott Weiland earlier this year.

Whatever Weiland did wrong, it couldn't have been bad enough for the world to deserve this.

High Rise is a five-track travesty, a so-wrong rewrite of the San Diego act's legacy with a singer trying to recreate a voice synonymous with '90s grunge.

Pleasingly, much of the music on High Rise recalls classic STP, with the chugging riffs of Out of Time and the cruisy summer vibe of Tomorrow recreating their best album, 1996's Tiny Music.

If only they'd left it there. Bennington does the best Weiland impersonation he can muster on the rawkus countrified rock of Black Heart and the gravelly chorus of Cry Cry, but he's got too much of a tinny whine to pull it off.

Even if you're only a half-hearted STP fan, avoid this at all costs.

Verdict:

Please say it's April Fool's Day.