R1: Deny vs. Mudshovel

[LoathedVermin72]

Default - "Deny"


Staind - "Mudshovel"

[LoathedVermin72]

I had Default's CD The Fallout when I was a kid. This song is bland and lame.

"Mudshovel" has always been one of my favorite Nu-ish songs. That opening bassline is fucking killer, and the spiraling guitar that comes in after Aaron's first vocal lines is so goddamn infectious. I love this song.

[PHATJ]

Deny sounds like a SilverChair song.

[Kaius]

“Mudshovel” is legit. Easy win.

[Kevin Davis]

"Mudshovel" is neither the definitive nu-metal song nor the definitive post-grunge song, but it's probably the song that best exemplifies the common ground between the two subgenres. I think Aaron Lewis is a twit and hate how his transformation from alt-rock's troubled-childhood pinup boy to truck-drivin' country bro seems to underscore that all the world's worst music really was made exclusively for people who live in my home state, but I can't pretend he didn't meet the requirements of the job with this one.

[Jammer XCI]

Default had other songs besides Wasting My Time?

I hate Staind, but Dysfunctional was a kind of okay album from what I remember. I like Just Go a lot more than Mudshovel, but in this poll I'm going Mudshovel. It does have a good bassline.

[Simple Torture]

Regarding the Mudshovel video, and lots of other videos that have been posted: I find it endearing and also mystifying that the producers/directors who put these together all found such unattractive people to be in all of them.

[tree_]

I couldn't make it past 1:35 of Deny. Maybe the worst singing I've ever heard.

Mudshovel is.... better

[guestT]

Regarding the Mudshovel video, and lots of other videos that have been posted: I find it endearing and also mystifying that the producers/directors who put these together all found such unattractive people to be in all of them.

It's a remarkably ugly genre of music all around.

[Brett]

Another harder matchup. I don't mind the couple Default songs that I know. They're definitely derivative, but they have a certain sense of melody and songwriting that I can appreciate. However, "Mudshovel" is one of the better songs from these genres, managing to capture a sound that is both heavy and accessible. So, I think that the way I'm leaning on this one.

[Jorge]

These songs are both new to me. The only Staind songs I know are "It's Been a While", "Outside" and "So Far Away"

Default - "Deny"

Guys I'm pretty sure the phlegmy "rasp" at 1:58 was digitally enhanced by the producer

[Jorge]

Guys, what the heck? "Mudshovel" is really bad. Both the verses and the choruses are melodically stagnant. And the riff would be nothing without that weird flange effect. At least "Deny" has a little movement in the chorus, bland as it is otherwise. It gets my vote.

[LoathedVermin72]

Dat bass tho

[Jorge]

That opening bassline is fucking killer

What is killer about it?! Literally my first thought upon pressing play was "they could've at least tried with the bassline". It's three root notes played with no flair or dynamics, with a boring, standard tone. It sounds like an Offspring bass line.

[tree_]

Guys, what the heck? "Mudshovel" is really bad. Both the verses and the choruses are melodically stagnant. And the riff would be nothing without that weird flange effect. At least "Deny" has a little movement in the chorus, bland as it is otherwise. It gets my vote.

To me, it's all about how terrible the singing is.

[LoathedVermin72]

Dose tree root notes tho

[E.H. Ruddock]

It's three root notes played with no flair or dynamics, with a boring, standard tone. It sounds like an Offspring bass line.

WELCOME TO NU-METAL

[LoathedVermin72]

Perhaps you’d prefer the sloppy original version

[tree_]

I spy "to RM" on that album cover

[Kaius]

Dose tree root notes tho

Aw yiss