The New Monster

The New Monster is the second studio album by American rock band Kreachr. Released in July 6, 2000 under MCA Records. It is Kreachr’s most comercially successful album, having sold over 4 million copies worldwide. It spawned four singles, three of which charted high on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts. It was certified 4 times platinum by the RIAA.

Lyrical and Musical Themes
The New Monster is a hallmark of Kreachr’s nu metal sound. Critics have compared the album’s sound to that of their contemporaries, Korn, Deftones, Limp Bizkit, Disturbed and Papa Roach. The album’s songs perfectly highlight AJ Reeves’ balance between clean vocals, rapping, and screaming, Criss Garcia’s backing vocals and usage of simple yet catchy riffs, Hiro Tanaka’s mastery of the slap technque, and Fyngr’s frenzied, double-pedal drumming.

The song “Along Came a Spider” features lines from the classic nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet, interpreting the lyrics as that of stalking, and keeping in line with the song’s theme. As of this writing, the album’s title track “The New Monster” is the only song by Kreachr to feature sampling.

Lyrically, the album deal with topics such as domestic and child abuse (“Trouble”, “Felony/Misdemeanor”, “Taken Away”), substance abuse (“My Sickness”), depression, (“When All Else Fails”, “A Little Wish”) and betrayal (“Blindsided”). Certain songs feature an anti-political (“Human Beings”) and atheist (“Darker Shade of Black”, “Sunday School”) viewpoint. Some songs in the album feature more unorthodox meanings, such as songs about BDSM (“Of Love & Nightmares”) and stalking (“Along Came a Spider). T he final track of the album, "Nina", was a song dedicated to guitarist Criss Garcia's childhood friend Nina, who commited suicide months before the album's release, following a long bout with depression.

 The album features a hidden track that plays after 8 minutes of silence following the last track "Nina". The track, dubbed "Diagnosis" by most fans, is an audio recording of a doctor prescribing asthma relief medicine to his patient (confirmed by the band to be AJ Reeves himself).

Cover
The album’s cover features a zoom-in on a woman’s face, with a large spider crawing from her neck up. The image is color-inverted to make the picture look more surreal. Alternate views of the woman with more spiders can be seen on the back cover, as well as inside the CD’s jewel case and lyric booklet.

Track Listing

 * 1) The New Monster
 * 2) My Sickness
 * 3) When All Else Fails
 * 4) Trouble
 * 5) Human Beings
 * 6) Darker Shade of Black
 * 7) Along Came a Spider
 * 8) Felony/Misdemeanor
 * 9) Blindsided
 * 10) Of Love & Nightmares
 * 11) Sunday School
 * 12) Taken Away
 * 13) A Little Wish
 * 14) Nina (hidden track "Diagnosis" starts after 8 minutes of silence)

Singles
Released: June 2, 2000
 * Trouble


 * Of Love & Nightmares

Released: September 15, 2000


 * Along Came a Spider

Released: November 22, 2000


 * My Sickness

Released: January 19, 2001

Personnel

 * AJ Reeves - lead vocals, occasional lead guitar


 * Criss Garcia - lead guitar, backing vocals


 * Hiro Tanaka - bass guitar


 * Finnegan “Fyngr” Graves - drums

Producer: Howard Benson

Writers: AJ Reeves, Kreachr