Mushroomhead – M3 (1999) self-released1. Before I Die
2. Solitaire/Unraveling
3. The New Cult King
4. Inevitable
5. Xeroxed
6. The Final Act
7. Conflict- The Argument Goes On...
8. Exploiting Your Weakness
9. Beauteous
10. Born of Desire
99. Dark & Evil Joe
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Hear me out on this one. Mushroomhead used to be the Midwest's best kept secret. They released three studio albums (& a remix album) completely independently. They managed to sell 50,000 of their CDs by themselves, during the mid 90s, before the wide spread use of the internet. They were selling out shows throughout Ohio and the surrounding area. It was obvious that Mushroomhead was a success. The band was turning down record contracts, no one could offer them a deal that was better than the 100% control they had as an independent band. They turned down multiple offers from Roadrunner Records.
If Roadrunner couldn't be part of Mushroomhead's success, they would just have to go create their own. They signed a band from Des Moines, encouraged them to get a second singer, as well as a few more band members (their original singer promptly quit, leaving them with only one). They hooked the band up with a professional special effects makeup artist, to enhance their theatrics, and hired the most popular producer in the nu-metal scene. It was a home run.
A few years later Mushroomhead became a national act. People dismissed the eight guys in masks & jumpsuits as a Slipknot copycat. It didn't help that their major label albums were uninspired and somewhat derivative. Their three independent albums are all highly original gems however.
M3 was their last independent album. This is nu-metal at its finest. It's easy to scoff at the genre now, but when done right, you can see why it became so popular. This is so keyboard driven, it's very reminiscent of Faith No More. I've always been a sucker for Jason Popson's vocals, the guy sounds like a pit bull. Don't be confused by the guest singer who appears on two songs, who sounds almost identical to the band's other singer, Jeffrey Hatrix. Hatrix nearly left the band during the recording of M3, so the guest nearly ended up as his replacement.
This album was originally released on the bands own MRH Inc. Records (which this version is). Through some legal snafu they stopped using that name, and eventually reissued the album under their own Filthy Hands moniker. Half these songs appear on their "debut album," XX, which is a "best of" of their three independent albums. Anyone familiar with Mushroomhead's first three albums easily dismisses XX, since it was so horribly "remastered" it's almost unlistenable.
