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”, “Sins”) viewpoint. Some songs in the album feature more unorthodox meanings, such as songs about BDSM (“Of Love & Nightmares”) and stalking (“Along Came a Spider).

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.

Versions
The album was later re-released with a “clean” version that removes expletives from the songs’ lyrics, while also removing the song “F You”, and replacing it with the UNKLE remix of “Canufeelme?”, the first single from their self-titled debut album (1998). This remix later appeared on the EP, Out of Sight (2001), alongside the previously unreleased song “Speedup”, as well as remixes of their previous songs.

Track Listing

 * 1) The New Monster


 * 1) My Sickness


 * 1) When All Else Fails


 * 1) Trouble


 * 1) Human Beings Darker Shade of Black


 * 1) Along Came a Spider


 * 1) Felony/Misdemeanor


 * 1) Blindsided


 * 1) Of Love & Nightmares


 * 1) Sunday School


 * 1) Taken Away


 * 1) A Little Wish


 * 1) Sins


 * 1) F You¹ / Canufeelme? (UNKLE remix)² (hidden track)

¹Only available in the dirty/uncensored version of the album

²Only available in the clean version of the album

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