Stone Sour
Demo 1994

I have already reviewed Stone Sour for their new album "Come What(ever) May" which, along with their first self-titled full-length, truly attracted and fascinated me with a band that now blends a certain nu-metal, alternative, post-grunge, hard rock and whatever else you want, so, researching (and downloading of course) I came across this Demo Tape from 1994 recorded at Big Fish Studios in Omaha, Nebraska.

There are 9 songs that might seem hard, grunge, alternative metal but they all have a common thread which is that exquisite taste of ROCK, a Corey Taylor who has not yet ruined his voice by screaming (as he will do in Slipknot) but using melodic tones yet 100 percent "heavy", despite being a demo you can really count many excellent tracks like "Sinergy", "That's Ridicoulus", "Funky Milk" and "Voices Again", the only flaw being the songwriting which seems a bit repetitive and very tied to the initial reference points, namely Alice In Chains. In fact, it must be considered that many of these songs were written by the group during the grunge era when Nirvana, Soundgarden, and indeed Alice In Chains dominated unchallenged, and for an emerging rock band of the time like Stone Sour, it was impossible not to be influenced.

On guitars, we find a certain Josh Rilying who is far from the nu-metal riff schemes that the current Stone Sour lineup with James Root (also in Slipknot with Corey) uses now, while the other members are more or less the same, on drums J. Elkman who left them before recording "Come What(ever) May" while on bass the longtime co-founder with Taylor, Shawn Economaki, still an important member of Stone Sour.

Technically these 9 songs might deserve 4 stars, but since it is a Demo, I don't want to overemphasize, if you happen to download it, because of course, you won't find it on the market, listen to it, these early Stone Sour will please you.