Corey Taylor - "CMF2"
Still not as good as early Slipknot or Stone Sour
Corey Taylor is not only a mainstay in the American Rock and Metal scenes — he’s damn near royalty. So, while I’m hit-and-miss on Slipknot and Stone Sour, and I definitely didn’t love CMFT,1 I can’t not give him the respect he’s due.
So we’re here with CMF2, and I don’t regret including it.
And I’d like to start by acknowledging that, in spite of the fact that he’s turning 50 in December, Corey Taylor’s voice is still fucking incredible. He doesn’t miss a step, and it doesn’t matter whether he’s going for clean or harsh vocals. Taylor is still the phenomenal musical talent he’s always been — on guitar and piano, as well as vocals.
The problem with this album is that it, like its predecessor, doesn’t live up to the high quality of composition and lyricism that I expect from Taylor. Especially on slower tracks like “Breath of Fresh Smoke” or “Sorry Me”. One of Taylor’s strengths has always been getting down in the dirt with darker emotions and wrestling them into his lyrics. That skill doesn’t really feel like it’s on display very much on this album — rather, because many songs still play in that direction, it feels like a token effort.
As in, this is Taylor’s brand, so he still writes songs talking about depression and hatred, etc, but he’s lost touch with it. The poetry is gone because he’s almost fifty years old and has been in the industry for just over thirty; he’s been very successful, and the angst that drove the art which fueled said success has dried up.
That isn’t to say that there are no good tracks here. This is still a massive step up from CMFT. The only wholly intolerable song on the album is “All I Want is Hate”. Other than that, the best moments on the album are, generally, found on the more aggressive tracks, such as “Post Traumatic Blues”. Because, of the slower songs, only “Midnight” really feels adequate in terms of composition and lyrics. It’s much harder to pay attention to lyrical quality when your face is melting.
The best track, though, is closer “Dead Flies”. This one song encompasses everything I was hoping to find on the album. It could easily have been a Stone Sour song fifteen years ago.
The album starts strong and finishes strong, but there are a lot of iffy moments throughout which underscore a lack of overall polish.
Rating: Yellow
Back in 2020, I was still leaving the worst albums on the cutting room floor; I don’t have a score recorded for CMFT, but I know I listened to it and was not impressed.