What The Hell Happened To... 10.06.08: Limp Bizkit - The Unquestionable Truth Pt. 1

Posted by Dan Marsicano on 10.06.2008

This week, Dan Marsicano puts it all out on the table and defends Limp Bizkit as he analyzes the band's last album, 2005's The Unquestionable Truth Part 1.

The Introduction

Welcome everybody, yet again, to another edition of What The Hell Happened To. I'm your host, the guy who's predicting that this edition won't make him any new friends, Dan Marsicano.

First of all, as I announced last week, I have a blog! That's right, your resident metal man finally got off his ass and worked on a blog…that, and it's a class project, so I'm kind of forced to do it. It's okay though; I always wanted to start a blog and now I have the motivation to do so. My blog will be looking at metal/rock bands in the Tri-State area (New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania), but I'll eventually branch out to the whole Northeast.

I update my blog three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and you can see news items, interviews, videos, and sarcastic opinions you won't get on 411 Mania. This past week, I made fun of Anthrax and told a "Brutal Truth." This week, I got an interview with an up-and-coming rock band looking to take on the world and I'll make fun of somebody else! So what are you waiting for? You know you want All The Metal, All The Time!.

I was very surprised at the over-whelming response to last week's column on New York grindcore band Brutal Truth's debut album. Looks like I may have to dip my whole leg into grindcore, instead of just my toes.

There is a new contest going on at 411 Music. Rise Against just went out on tour with Alkaline Trio, Thrice, and The Gaslight Anthem and you could get two free tickets to go to the show of your choice. All you have to do is click on the contest page and enter all your information in. Hurry up though; the tour is starting, so if your city is coming up, you may not have a lot of time.

This week should be either an EPIC FAIL or the greatest thing to come to 411 Mania since…well, since I joined the staff. It all depends on your viewpoint of the band I'm highlighting this week: Limp Bizkit. Love them or hate them, you can't deny (unless you want to be "that guy") that they had an impact on music in the late 90's/early 00's. The band went through a few bad years, with guitarist Wes Borland leaving and the band releasing the 2003 bomb Results May Vary.

So, about a year later, they dropped replacement guitarist Mike Smith and brought back Borland to the ranks. Together, the re-formed Limp Bizkit went into the studio to record seven tracks, what basically amounted to an extended EP. The Unquestionable Truth Part 1 was largely forgotten, but beneath the name and the hype, lies a decent, shall I dare say, good album that marked an evolution in the band's sound, showing an aggressive and brutally honest side of the Limp not seen before.





The Band

Fred Durst-Vocals, Guitar
Wes Borland-Guitar
Sam Rivers-Bass
DJ Lethal-Keyboard, Samples, Programming
John Otto-Drums (On Track 5)
Sammy Siegler-Drums (On Rest Of Album)


The Track Listing

1. The Propaganda-5:16
2. The Truth-5:28
3. The Priest-4:59
4. The Key-1:24
5. The Channel-4:41
6. The Story-3:56
7. The Surrender-4:00



The History

Limp Bizkit formed in 1994, with the principal members of the band being involved, save for DJ Lethal (who was still with House of Pain at the time) and Wes Borland (original guitarist was Rob Waters). Waters didn't do much with the band, save for a demo, and Borland was brought in. Fred Durst got the attention of Korn, who gave the demo to Ross Robinson. Robinson expressed interest in producing the band's debut album. DJ Lethal would join Limp Bizkit in late 1996, after House of Pain broke up.

With Borland and Lethal on board, the band signed to Flip Records, who entered an agreement with Interscope to release Three Dollar Bills Y'All in 1997. The album, recorded in a week and a half, had slow sales to start, but eventually went double platinum, on the strength of single "Faith," a George Michael cover.

1999's Significant Other would be the band's breakout performance. Singles "Nookie," "Re-Arranged," "Break Stuff," and "N 2 Gether Now" all went high on the charts and the album sold over half a million copies in the first week. The band had become superstars, even with controversy constantly surrounding them. From their 1999 Woodstock performance that enraged concert goers to get violent to Durst's constant disses at fellow musicians, the band couldn't hide from the negative media attention.



"Break Stuff" Official Music Video


You know what they say; no publicity is bad publicity, which was proven by 2000's Chocolate Starfish and The Hot Dog Flavored Water. The album sold over a million copies in its first week and has gone 6X Platinum. The album itself was decent, but you could tell that the pieces of the band were quickly falling apart.

Borland's departure after the release of the album only solidified this point, and the band continued on, replacing him with Mike Smith of Snot fame. 2003's Results May Vary wasn't a great album, lacking any songs on the level of "Nookie" or "My Way" and suffering from too many slow, plodding tracks that went nowhere. Not even a crappy cover of The Who's "Behind Blues Eyes" could save the album.

Smith left Limp Bizkit after being with the band for about a year and Wes Borland rejoined the ranks. With their original lineup in tow (save for John Otto; I'll explain later), the band entered the studio to create what would be Borland's last recorded session with Limp Bizkit…


The Analysis

When The Unquestionable Truth Pt. 1 hit store shelves nationwide in 2005, the consensus among the masses was "Wait…Limp Bizkit is still around…and they have a new album?!" Yes, they did, but you wouldn't know it, judging by the amount of publicity and hype the album had: zero. Well, that's not true. There was a video made for "The Truth," but no music station played the song and the media giants at MTV or VH1 didn't give it the time of day.

This led to the album only reaching #24 on the Billboard charts, with an abysmal 37,000 copies sold. If there was any indication that the band had fallen on bad times, this would be evidence A. Limp Bizkit had lost its fan base; the same one that put up with Durst's shit for years and stuck with the band during its darkest hour with the loss of Borland.


"The Truth" Music Video

So why did people not jump all over Borland's return to the band and purchase The Unquestionable Truth Pt. 1? Hell, it was only an EP, so it actually was cheaper than a regular album; still, nobody wanted it. Nobody wanted anything to do with Durst "growing up" and the band's sound becoming more aggressive and Rage Against The Machine-like. My feeling is that nothing could have saved The Unquestionable Truth Pt. 1 from disappointment. Even if this album was publicized and hyped to no end, it wouldn't matter. Limp Bizkit was dead at this point and Borland knew better than to stick in the sinking ship with Captain Durst and his gang of scurvy crewmates.

The Unquestionable Truth Pt.1 is not so much a misstep as it was a missed opportunity for redemption. Durst, even with his large ego, had to know in the back of his mind that Borland leaving was a bad idea, and the album sales and reception to Results May Vary only reinforced the claim. So Durst gets the gang back together, sets sail on a new ship, and hopes that everything will stay afloat, while basically telling everybody in their path, "Hey, we fucked up. But look, Borland is back! So it's the good old crew back to kick some ass and show that we all have matured in the time away from each other."

In Durst's mind that may have seemed like a good idea, but that boat wasn't made strong enough and the lead weight that is Durst's ego sank another ship. Durst has always been the weak link to the band. He can't sing, he can hardly rap, and he has the lyrical prowess of a 12-year-old. We let that go in the past because Borland cranked out some great riffs and the rhythm section of Otto and Rivers was tight as hell. Once Borland left, Durst took full control and showed the world why we should have hated him about five years earlier.

The Unquestionable Truth Pt. 1 is Durst at his best and worst. When Durst actually puts some effort in, as he does in the rap-centric "The Story," the band seems to work harder to show him off. However, when he is off, which he is a lot on The Unquestionable Truth Pt. 1, the album drags and even the musicianship suffers from it.

Durst's low moments include a strange echoing effect he uses on "The Channel" that does nothing to accentuate the song and distracts from the rest of the band. I can't forget about his "brilliant" performance on the opening track, where he slurs the same lyric out-of-tune against the music for a minute. This, coupled with the lyrics, which are politically charged, but shallow and unfocused, makes Durst look less credible as a lyricist and vocalist (if he had any credibility in the first place). "The Priest" is a strong song instrumentally with lyrics that are all over the place. After ranting about how the priests "molest children," Durst goes off on a tangent about terrorists and Dimebag Darrel's murder. Why Durst decides to change the topic for a brief thirty second period is unanswered, but I really don't want to know what goes on inside his head.



"Nookie" Live Woodstock 99


I mentioned about John Otto only being involved in one song. While nothing was ever confirmed outright, the rumors include Otto struggling with a drug addiction and Otto actually recording drums for the album, only for the band to use Siegler's drum tracks instead of Otto's. No matter the case, the difference between Siegler and Otto is apparent once you get to the one track Otto contributed, "The Channel." The song has a certain groove to it missing on the rest of the album. That isn't to knock Sigeler's performance though; his drumming is powerful and suits the newly aggressive sound perfectly.

The saving grace of the album is Rivers and Borland. I always found Rivers to be an underrated bassist, one that the media and fans tend to take for granted. He's not a revolutionary player, but he has talent and helps to liven things up on The Unquestionable Truth Pt. 1, especially in the opening to "The Truth," the album's best track. Borland's guitar playing brought back the idea of the "riff" to Limp Bizkit's sound, and everything memorable about the album is due in part of Borland.

I knocked Durst a lot, but the album itself is actually quite solid. Other than the filler track "The Key," the album is the band's best collection of material since Significant Other. Other than the moments mentioned above, "The Surrender" has a great Borland solo rounding out the album, and "The Propaganda" has this awesome opening riff that makes the track instantly memorable. Actually, most of the tracks have at least one riff that will make you go "Holy Crap!," in a good way. As long as you don't confuse the band for RATM, and don't set your expectations too high, you can find at least a little enjoyment out of The Unquestionable Truth Pt. 1.

The rumors have been flying around about Limp Bizkit's new guitarist, but does it really matter? In the end, will we all celebrate the great return of the Limp, holding Durst on this gold-covered platter for all to see? Of course not; Limp Bizkit as we know it is dead and buried. The Unquestionable Truth Pt.1 was the band's dying breath; their one moment to show the world that they should still care about Limp Bizkit. The world's answer?


We don't give a shit.


That's a shame though, since this EP could actually rank up there with the band's best works. Hell, at least its better than Results May Vary. What if this album was full of tracks like "Eat You Alive" and "Gimme The Mic"? Not even Borland can save a ship full of shit like that.


The Conclusion

Yet again, no Who The Hell Is… this week. Sorry boys and girls; time has been a bitch to me lately, but I promise to start it back up next week.

Speaking of next week, I'm looking at Brand New's latest album, The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Of Me. Largely ignored around here in 411, I'm going to showcase what I think is one of the most underrated albums of 2006. It's going to be a good one, so don't forget to check up on the blog and I'll see you all next week!