Another Animal

Album Review

Certain questions have simply never been asked, even once, in the history of rock music. Questions like "Where's that second solo album from Andrew Ridgeley?" or "Gee, I wonder if there was ever an underground sex tape starring the big guy from Canned Heat?" Foremost among these questions is, "Say, whatever happened to the singer from Ugly Kid Joe?" Yes, the band who were pretty much the last gasp of hair metal before Nevermind stuck a fork in that entire scene, who had a single and utterly unmemorable hit, "Everything About You," way back in 1992. Those guys. Well, it turns out that their drummer, Shannon Larkin, later went on to join nu-metal act Godsmack, and when that band's lead singer found himself in the midst of a case of writer's block prior to the recording of their fourth album, Larkin and the rest of Godsmack, guitarist Tony Rambola and bassist Robbie Merrill, found themselves with some time to kill and invited Larkin's old bandmate over for a jam. Two years later, the resulting album Another Animal was quietly released by Godsmack's label Republic Records. And what does it sound like? Why, like a Godsmack album fronted by the guy from Ugly Kid Joe, silly! In other words, it's less depressive and pretentious than Sully Erna's usual po-faced fare, which is good, but it's also filled with dorky clichés (no one will be surprised to learn that "The Thin Line" is between love and hate) and cookie cutter nu-metal songs that sound more and more past their sell-by date with every listen. Even fans of Godsmack might want to think twice before shelling out.