Memorial albums are basically critic-proof. Who is heartless enough to mock an album that features normally nihilistic rock stars expressing love for a friend who died young? Lynn Strait, the frontman for the California-based hardcore outfit Snot, died two years ago in a car crash, leaving behind plenty of grieving peers in the heavy-music scene. The remaining members of his band, taking inspiration from the classic elegy album Temple of the Dog, took completed music and asked a variety of vocalists to contribute lyrics in Strait's memory. While the results can get a bit mushy, the singers for Soulfly, Sevendust, Sugar Ray, Slipknot and Coal Chamber rise to the occasion and deliver heartfelt memorials to their dead homey over tracks that range from gothic dirges to acoustic laments to backbeat-happy punk. Brandon Boyd from Incubus and Serj from System of a Down, sounding like the only songwriters who aren't strangers to introspective thought, provide the album's highlights. This record, which ends with an unreleased Snot song and spoken word from Ozzy Osbourne and Strait, is a sure-to-be-treasured, if somewhat depressing, addition to any OZZfest fan's CD collection.
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