Staind

No music critic, A&R exec or label bigwig has a crystal ball, of course, so rock history is rife with bands that were touted as “the next big thing” but fell into oblivion before gaining much traction. But a review in Lollipop magazine of Staind’s self-released 1996 debut album was as close to 20/20 foresight as humanly possible. “Unlike many a band, especially heavy bands that rely more on strength than dexterity, Staind has songs,” it said. “Songs that you get to know. Songs you move with, go the distance with. This is a band to watch.”

Less than three years after those prescient comments were published, Staind’s second LP hit #1 in two Billboard charts (Heatseekers and Top Pop Catalogue Albums). In 2001, when their third disc reached #1 in the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums chart (and the top 40 in 10 other countries), some wondered if the folks at Lollipop had a crystal ball tucked away somewhere.

OVERVIEW

One of the premier purveyors of nu metal, a blend of heavy metal, grunge, alt-rock, funk, industrial rock, deathcore and hip hop first popularized by Korn, Staind’s sound has developed over the decades but the essential elements remain the same: dark-as-hell lyrics, emotion-laden vocals, ferocious guitar riffs and a weapons-grade rhythm section. “When it comes to the post-grunge genre, a handful of rockers can be credited as the pioneers of that dark, tormented, introspective sound,” wrote Anne Erikson on the hard-rock site Blabbermouth in 2023. “Staind are one of them.”

A multi-platinum-selling force of nature on a global scale, the band’s recorded eight albums, several of which have topped the charts in the US, the UK and multiple other countries. But while the band has toured the world over, they value their Springfield, Massachusetts roots above all and bristle when people say they’re from Boston. “We were never a Boston band,” lead guitarist Mike Mushok said in 2002. “We played a bunch of shows in Boston but Springfield is where we’re from. We always had really good gigs in Springfield which allowed us to make money, put out our first CD and buy a van and a trailer so we could play places like Boston, but we wouldn’t make any money. It would nearly cost us money to play there.”

FORMATION, EARLY APPEARANCES

The quartet came together in late 1994 with the original lineup of vocalist-rhythm guitarist Aaron Lewis, lead guitarist Mike Mushok, bassist Johnny April and drummer Jon Wysocki. Mushok and Wysocki had met in early 1993 at The Infinity, a popular rock club in Springfield, and Mushok met Lewis at a mutual friend’s Christmas party that year. The three formed a band in October 1994, rehearsing in Mushok’s parents’ basement with one of Lewis’ bassist friends; April took over four-stringed duties in late November.

While the group started writing original material right away, it was virtually impossible for an unknown band to get gigs in the Springfield area without playing covers so they added tunes by bands like Peal Jam, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Korn, Stone Temple Pilots, Deftones and Rage Against the Machine to their repertoire. “It worked because we were able to switch over to being an original band, which is a very difficult thing,” Mushok said in 2002. “Even when we played covers, we still played five Staind songs.” They played their first live gig in February 1995 and quickly became a regular presence at The Infinity and Mikara’s in Springfield and several other area clubs.

TORMENTED, LIMP BIZKIT GIG, FLIP RECORDS SIGNING

By mid-1996, they’d saved up about $2,500 (about $4,800 in 2024), enough to cut their first album, Tormented, a collection of 12 originals that they recorded at The Rock Shop in Westfield, Massachusetts, and self-released in November that year. By the end of 1997, they’d sold all 400 copies of the cassette and all 4,000 copies of the CD, which featured the original version of “Mudshovel,” the song that launched the group into the mainstream in 1999.

The lyrical themes on the disc are brutally dark – hate, pain, grief, substance abuse, anger, depression – and it includes the sound of a gun being loaded and cocked at the beginning of the album and fired at the end along with a hidden track, “The Funeral,” about a suicide. The LP is known for its grotesque cover art, which features a Barbie doll on a bloodied crucifix and the partial face of a buried man with a rosary protruding through his nose.

In early 1997, Staind played their first Boston/Cambridge gigs, appearing at The Rathskeller in January and Mama Kin’s and The Middle East in March, and they debuted at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence in June. The band got their big break in October 1997, when they were invited to open for Limp Bizkit at the 1,200-seat Webster Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut, but a confrontation with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst before the show almost prevented them from taking the stage. “Fred was so offended by the artwork on the CD cover that he tried to get us kicked off the bill,” Mushok recalled in 2002. “He burst into our dressing room about 20 minutes before we were scheduled to go on and threw the CD across the room. He thought we were devil worshippers.” The band was allowed to perform after all and it was the most pivotal night of their nascent career. After the show, Durst said he wanted to help Staind land a label deal, which is exactly what he did: By early 1998, they’d signed with Flip Records, the label Limp Bizkit signed with in 1997.

DYSFUNCTION, BREAK THE CYCLE

In April 1999, Flip released Staind’s Dysfunction LP, co-produced by Durst and Terry Date (Soundgarden, Pantera). Reviews were effusive and the album hit #1 in the Billboard Heatseekers and Top Pop Catalogue Albums charts and #74 in the Billboard 200. Two singles reached the Billboard Mainstream Rock (MRT) chart, “Mudshovel” (#10) and “Just Go” (#24), and the band toured extensively, headlining smaller venues and opening for Limp Bizkit, The Crystal Method and Sevendust at larger ones.

In May 2001, Flip and Elektra co-issued Staind third studio album, Break the Cycle, which established the band as an international presence, debuting at #1 in both the Billboard 200 and UK Albums chart and selling over 700,000 copies in its first week (the second highest of any LP that year, the first being Creed’s Weathered). The LP reached the top 40 in 19 other countries, the single “It’s Been Awhile” hit #1 in the MRT chart and the UK Rock & Metal one and three other singles – “For You,” “Outside” and “Fade” – cracked the top 10 in the US and UK. The album sold over seven million copies and remains Staind’s most commercially successful disc.

14 SHADES OF GREY, CHAPTER V, THE SINGLES: 1996-2006, THE VIDEOS DVD

Like its predecessor, Staind’s fourth studio outing, Break the Cycle, debuted at #1 in the Billboard 200 when Flip and Elektra issued it in May 2003. It reached #16 in the UK Top Albums chart, the top 30 in nine other nations and included three singles that made the top 10 in the MRT chart: “So Far Away” (#1), “Price to Play” (#2) and “How About You” (#10). In August 2005, Flip and Atlantic co-issued Chapter V, which also debuted at #1 in the Billboard 200 and produced three singles that fared well in the MRT listings, “Right Here” (#1), “Everything Changes” (#22) and “King of All Excuses” (#27).

To support Chapter V, the band toured across the US and Europe and made its first appearances in Australia. In November 2005, Flip released a two-CD/DVD set of Chapter V and in 2006 Atlantic Records issued The Singles: 1996–2006, a compilation of 18 singles (including live acoustic covers of Tool, Pink Floyd and Alice in Chains songs) and the 14-track DVD Staind: The Videos.

THE ILLUSION OF PROGRESS, WYSOCKI’S DEPARTURE, STAIND

In August 2008, Flip, Atlantic and Roadrunner Records co-released Staind’s sixth album, The Illusion of Progress, which Lewis called the band’s “heaviest” and “most musical” record to date, noting its Pink Floyd-ish vibe and the fact that it was recorded using vintage guitars and amps. It debuted at #1 in both the Billboard Top Internet Albums and Top Digital Albums charts, #2 in the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart and #3 in the Billboard 200. The first single, “Believe,” hit #1 in Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart and #4 in the MRT one and the second, “All I Want,” reached #27 in the MRT chart.

In May 2011, Staind announced that Wysocki had left the band, temporarily replaced by Will Hunt and Wysocki’s drum tech, Sal Giancarelli, for live shows. In September that year, Flip, Atlantic and Roadrunner co-issued the band’s seventh disc, Staind – which marked a return to the aggressive sound of their first three albums – and YouTube premiered a documentary about the tension-filled recording sessions for the LP, The Making of Staind. Three singles made Billboard‘s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart – “Not Again” (#4), “Eyes Wide Open” (#23) and “Now” (#27) – and it was the band’s last album to include the complete original lineup (Wysocki having finished recording his tracks before his departure). In late 2011, Giancarelli became an official band member.

HIATUS, CONFESSIONS OF THE FALLEN, COMMENTS ON FUTURE ALBUMS

In July 2012, the group announced that they’d be taking a hiatus of uncertain length, but Lewis stressed that the band was not breaking up. They reunited in 2014 for some appearances before retreating from the public eye again until August 2017, when they played an acoustic set at a charity golf tournament and announced that their globe-trotting, months-long tour days were over.

In September 2022, the band did a 12-city “Evening with Staind” tour – which included an appearance at Mass Mutual Center in Springfield (the only New England stop) – and in mid-2023 they co-headlined a US tour with Godsmack. In September 2023, BMG released Staind’s eighth album, Confessions of the Fallen, which was their first studio outing in 12 years. Unsurprisingly, given the group’s string of top-selling LPs on both sides of the Atlantic, the disc soared to #2 in both the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart and the UK Rock & Metal Albums one.

Asked in October 2023 if Staind plans to record more albums, Mushok didn’t close the door but didn’t offer any details. “I have no major announcement to make,” he told Chuck Armstrong of the syndicated radio show Loudwire Nights. “For me, let’s get [Confessions of the Fallen] out. Let’s get through that and see where we end up. Right now, I’m enjoying that we finished the album and I like what it is. I definitely got enjoyment out of creating something like that.”

(by D.S. Monahan)