Coal Chamber

Chamber Music (Roadrunner)
by Martin Popoff

More than a little disappointed with this highly anticipated follow-up, motormouth Dez and crew making a repetitious, sleepy, confused, weakly-produced record that’s just a little too electronica and hip-hop for my liking. Plus the grooves are gone, and there are actually fewer hooks, something the debut’s barks’n’power chords made up for. Multiple vocal approaches also add to the confusion, Dez seemingly trying to craft a record for everyone, just channel-surfing into this, into that, all of it trendy, all of it badly-written.

Everybody talks about the cover of “Shock The Monkey” and as well they should, because it’s awful, Ozzy turning in a dishrag of a performance, the band coming up with multiple limp ideas to accompany the disaster, ultimately creating a microcosm of the record’s watery, meandering faults. Pretty damn good live, this tireless tour machine will sell boatloads, given equally tireless promotion by tenacious manager Sharon Osbourne. But you can’t help thinking that the recorded product, at least this time out, is akin to getting a tour program.
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