Staind

Aaron Lewis is back, bloodless, lifeless, and monotonous as ever in his relentless yet imprecise adolescent complaint against the oppressive forces of this and that which prevent him from attaining a peaceable state of something or other. While it would be a stretch to say that Staind and their imbecile plaintive ilk are the reason rock’n’roll is artistically dead in the mainstream, it wouldn’t be much of one. The blandness of the plodding songwriting on offer in Chapter V is matched only by the sterility of the production and the sheer idiocy of the confessional lyrics: "I long for solitude and peace within me/Void of all the anger and the fear,” he wistfully offers in "Schizophrenic Conversations.” To the discredit of the American record-buying public, Lewis’ pseudo-introspection has twice landed Staind at the top of the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, and it could yet happen again, as Chapter V is as slick a package of FM-radio balderdash as Staind have managed.