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Let's start right away with the disclaimer, today Limp Bizkit is one of the crappiest bands in the whole nu-metal movement (how I hate this term, but there's no avoiding it), if we want to still define them that way, but at the time of this album they were as pissed off as few and Fred Durst still put in the anger and grit of someone who wanted to make music and not just money.
Looking at the cover, you might say it's a rap or hip-hop album, and indeed the style is such, from the graphics with the songs written like tags, to the aspect of the various members, particularly Durst with that crooked baseball cap of his which has become the group's image in the many merchandising operations undertaken by Limp Bizkit. In fact, that's how it is, he is (or at least was) a decent MC, with good dialectics, fast and feisty, and with a raw kid's voice that suits heavier and rockier sounds, but aside from the usual rap scratches and some chill episodes, the rest of the album is hard, quite hard, decidedly different from its successors which are too filtered and synthesized, much less "real" and convincing and far more commercial.
Borland really smashes and will never again repeat himself later, offering heavy, raw, dirty riffs that together with a purely nu-metal bass form the violent component of the sound produced by our guys. The production is by nu-metal guru Ross Robinson, who has produced records for bands like Korn, Slipknot, Amen, and... Cure! Almost a certainty.
After the classic Bizkit intro, with Fred saying a couple of words, they launch at full speed with a fantastic and powerful "Pollution", certainly the best of the album, then continue with more direct songs like "Counterfeit", "Nobody loves me", "Faith2", a very pissed-off punk cover of the famous hit by our favorite gay Giorgio Michele and "Leech" above all, to others more fluctuating between rock and rap like "Sour" and the very long outro "Everything": sixteen minutes of atmosphere like "The End Apocalypse Now version" (well, okay, it's an example... don't hurt me too much!) with the bass dominating and great Dj Lethal going wild with effects and various scratches, very relaxing!
In essence: this album was a hit, this was the true sound of the now lost Limp Bizkit that many regret, ended up among MTV charts, among tits, asses, success, fame, flirts with the chick of the moment, pool parties in Beverly Hills, champagne, nice cars, albums on the edge of ridiculous, soundtracks, splits and reconciliations of various types and money, lots and lots of money. It's a shame because these five biscuit makers promised well and Durst was even likable with his chubby face and the famous cap turned on his semi-bald head.
In short, another band that left the path of true music for something more material and certainly easier, but honestly calling them stupid would seem at least hypocritical, good for them, surely less so for us.
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