Mushroomhead, and Dope

Oof, tough times for nü-metal these days, huh? Skinny, Schmotz, Pig Benis, and the rest of the Cleveland octet Mushroomhead may be feeling a bit like Donnie, Joey, Jordan, Danny and Jon circa 1992, but that just won’t stop these masked, malevolent misfits — these punk-thrash provocateurs — from soldiering onward for their small but rabidly loyal following. Ask any devotee and they’ll maintain with every beer-and-weed-polluted breath that the mighty ‘Head was around long before Slipknot or Mudvayne. That’s true. The band has been rockin’ the jumpsuits and bondage-cum-gas mask headgear — and appropriating the styles of Gwar, Faith No More, and Ministry — for 12 years and counting. But they’re still the Carl’s Jr. of masked, horror-show metal.

Dope, on the other hand, is like an E. coli-infested burger joint that inexplicably doesn’t get shuttered by the health department. These clowns-without-makeup were nü-metal bottom feeders even during the genre’s heyday, and since then, they’ve only managed to get worse. Bassist Sloane “Mosey” Jentry appears to be the smartest of the bunch — he quit the band five days before this tour.