''Gold Cobra'' is the fifth studio album by American
rap rock
Rap rock is a fusion genre that fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock's most popular subgenres include rap metal and rapcore, which include heavy metal and hardcore punk-oriented influences, resp ...
band
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit is an American rap rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Its lineup consists of lead vocalist Fred Durst, drummer John Otto, guitarist Wes Borland, turntablist DJ Lethal and bassist Sam Rivers. The band's music is marked by D ...
. Released in 2011 by
Flip and
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...
, it is the band's first studio album since 2003's ''
Results May Vary
''Results May Vary'' is the fourth studio album by American rap rock band Limp Bizkit, released on September 23, 2003, through Flip and Interscope Records. It is the band's only release under the sole-leadership of vocalist Fred Durst after the ...
'' and its first with the full original lineup since 2000's ''
Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
''Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water'' is the third studio album by American nu metal band Limp Bizkit, released on October 17, 2000, by Flip and Interscope Records.
Title
The first part of the title is a slang term for the ...
''. ''Gold Cobra'' features an eclectic and diverse sound, but is also similar in style to the band's earlier albums. The album, which featured the
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
"
Shotgun
A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...
" and received mixed reviews, sold 27,000 copies during its first week in the United States and peaked at No. 16 on the
''Billboard'' 200. This was their last album for a decade, until the band released ''
Still Sucks'' in 2021.
Background
In 2004,
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit is an American rap rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Its lineup consists of lead vocalist Fred Durst, drummer John Otto, guitarist Wes Borland, turntablist DJ Lethal and bassist Sam Rivers. The band's music is marked by D ...
recorded ''
The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1)
''The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1)'' is an EP by the American band Limp Bizkit, and their fifth major release overall. Released in 2005, it is the first release by the band to feature guitarist Wes Borland since he rejoined the group. He had le ...
'', with returning member
Wes Borland
Wesley Louden Borland (born February 7, 1975) is an American rock musician. He is best known as the current guitarist and backing vocalist of the rap metal band Limp Bizkit, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative and industrial rock ...
, but
John Otto was replaced by
Sammy Siegler
Sammy Siegler (born March 21, 1973) is an American rock drummer, notable for his many contributions to the New York hardcore scene. He is currently living in Venice, California with his wife, model Siew Longhorn.
Discography
With Project X
* ...
for much of the album.
Following the release of the band's ''
Greatest Hitz'' album, the band went on hiatus.
[ Borland stated that it was unlikely that a sequel to ''The Unquestionable Truth'' would be produced and that "As of right now, none of my future plans include Limp Bizkit."] In 2009, Limp Bizkit reunited with Borland on guitar and launched the Unicorns N' Rainbows Tour.
During the tour Durst announced that they had begun to record a new album with Borland, titled ''Gold Cobra''. Borland said that the title does not have any meaning, and that it was chosen because it fit the style of music the band was writing for the album.[ The band recorded a spoken intro written by Durst and performed by ]Kiss
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
member Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; he, חיים ויץ, ; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul ...
for the album, but it was left off the completed album. The band also recorded additional "non-album" tracks, including "Combat Jazz", which featured rapper
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
Raekwon
Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon The Chef, or simply Raekwon (), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success ...
.[
]
Music and lyrics
The music of ''Gold Cobra'' was generally described as nu metal
Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu met ...
, and has been noted as a return to the established sound of Limp Bizkit's earlier albums. However, the album features noticeable variations from the band's established style for a more eclectic sound. Unlike ''Significant Other
The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming ...
'', ''Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
''Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water'' is the third studio album by American nu metal band Limp Bizkit, released on October 17, 2000, by Flip and Interscope Records.
Title
The first part of the title is a slang term for the ...
'' and ''Results May Vary
''Results May Vary'' is the fourth studio album by American rap rock band Limp Bizkit, released on September 23, 2003, through Flip and Interscope Records. It is the band's only release under the sole-leadership of vocalist Fred Durst after the ...
'', ''Gold Cobra'' does not feature any guest vocalists, except for two of the bonus tracks, and the album's sound predominately focuses on the guitar work of Wes Borland rather than that of turntablist and sound designer DJ Lethal
Leor Dimant ( lv, Leors Dimants, russian: Леор Григорьевич Димант, ; born December 18, 1972), better known as DJ Lethal, is a Latvian-American turntablist and producer and is best known as a member of the groups House of Pai ...
.[ Sam Rivers' bass playing incorporates elements of ]jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
and funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
, while Borland's guitar playing incorporates a variety of influences, ranging from heavy metal and hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
to electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
[ and DJ Lethal's ]keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
and samples give the album a sound that is both melodic and abrasive.[ The intro, "Introbra", features distorted ]air raid siren
A civil defense siren, also known as an air-raid siren or tornado siren, is a siren used to provide an emergency population warning to the general population of approaching danger. It is sometimes sounded again to indicate the danger has pa ...
s, and is much darker in tone than the hip hop-influenced intros on ''Significant Other'' and ''Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water''.[ Interludes on the album incorporate elements of hip hop and jazz.][
"Bring It Back" differs from Limp Bizkit's established sound by being slower and heavier than the band is generally known for.][ "Shark Attack" is an uptempo track which features references to earlier songs, such as the lyric "another one of those days", which refers to the lyrics of "]Break Stuff
Break or Breaks or The Break may refer to:
Time off from duties
* Recess (break), time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties
* Break (work), time off during a shift/recess
** Coffee break, a short mid-morning rest ...
".[ "Walking Away", "Loser" and the album's first single, "]Shotgun
A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...
", are noted for featuring guitar solo
Solo or SOLO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Comics
* ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series
* Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics
Characters
* Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character
* Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...
s by Borland, something that Limp Bizkit is not known for. "Shotgun", influenced by heavy metal music, has been described as an anthem
An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
by Artistdirect
ARTISTdirect is an American online digital media entertainment company.
Overview
Founded in 1994, it owns several websites, including artistdirect.com and artistdirectinterviews.com. These websites are a group of affiliate websites offering mul ...
. "Walking Away" is a serene, ambient ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
with introspective lyrics which does not contain any hip hop influence or rapping
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
, in contrast to the sound the band is generally known for, and builds with dramatic solos.[ "Loser" combines the softer sound of "Walking Away" with rapped verses,][ and is followed by a heavier track, "Autotunage", featuring Durst singing in ]autotune
Auto-Tune (or autotune) is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances.
Auto-Tu ...
,[ and "90.2.10", which incorporates a ]thrash
Thrash may refer to:
*Thrashing (computer science), where increasing resources are used to do a decreasing amount of work
*Thrash (surname)
* Thrash, mascot of the Atlanta Thrashers
*'' Thrash Rally'', a top-down perspective rally racing video gam ...
influence.[
]
Critical reception
At Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 53, indicating "mixed or average reviews", based on 11 reviews. Artistdirect
ARTISTdirect is an American online digital media entertainment company.
Overview
Founded in 1994, it owns several websites, including artistdirect.com and artistdirectinterviews.com. These websites are a group of affiliate websites offering mul ...
reviewer Rick Florino gave the album 5 out of 5 stars, writing "''Gold Cobra'' is everything you hoped it would be, and rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
and metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
will be walking funny after it takes a bite out of both them". Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
's Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
gave the album a positive review, calling it "a return to the full-throttled attack of '' Three Dollar Bill Y'All''". ''Metal Hammer
''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' features news, reviews and long-form ...
'' writer Terry Bezer wrote, "Aside from the odd duff moment, ''Gold Cobra'' throws out the hot shit that’ll make you bounce in the mosh pit over and over again."[
David Buchanan, of ]Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
, called ''Gold Cobra'' "an entertaining, boastful, non-alienating piece of nostalgic bliss for those who once held memberships with the LB". In a similar context, Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
writer Jonathan Barkan gave the album a positive review, stating "The album, on a whole, sounds fantastic. ..It's not Paganini or Opeth
Opeth is a Swedish progressive metal/rock band from Stockholm, formed in 1990 by lead vocalist David Isberg. The group has been through several personnel changes, including the replacement of every original member; notably Isberg in 1992. Mikael ...
or Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of the ...
. It's rap rock
Rap rock is a fusion genre that fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock's most popular subgenres include rap metal and rapcore, which include heavy metal and hardcore punk-oriented influences, resp ...
and it does exactly what it sets out to do." IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
writer Chad Grischow wrote, "Though far from their best work, Limp Bizkit's latest at least proves that their 2005 ''Greatest Hitz'' album may have been premature."[ ]About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...
writer Tim Grierson called ''Gold Cobra'' "the group’s strongest since ''Significant Other''".[
'']Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' reviewer Kyle Anderson called the album an "oft-delayed, petulant, and hook-devoid 'comeback' from the onetime champions of early-aughts nü-metal mania. Antiquiet published a negative review which described the album as "music for the sneering scumbags who find kinship in the dregs of cultural rot". The website initially gave the album 1 out of 5 stars. Wes Borland responded to the review, stating "The hatred you have for Fred is part of the reason we've succeeded. ..No matter what effect he has on people in a ‘TMZ Personality’ kind of way, he is an astonishing front man and performer. I could see 1 out of 5 if you were expecting '' OK Computer'' ..As far as LB records go, ''Gold Cobra'' is perfect."
Commercial performance
''Gold Cobra'' charted at No. 16 on the ''Billboard'' 200 charts with 27,000 copies sold in the first week in the United States. The album charted on ''Billboard'' Albums for the No. 3 Rock Album, No. 11 Digital Album, No. 2 Alternative Album, No. 1 Hard Rock Album and No. 21 Tastemakers Album. In its second week of release overseas ''Gold Cobra'' was No. 7 on the Swiss Album Charts, No. 8 on the Austrian Album Charts, No. 24 on the Canadian Albums Chart and No. 1 on the German Albums Chart
The GfK Entertainment charts are the official music charts in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindust ...
.
Track listing
Personnel
Limp Bizkit
* Wes Borland
Wesley Louden Borland (born February 7, 1975) is an American rock musician. He is best known as the current guitarist and backing vocalist of the rap metal band Limp Bizkit, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative and industrial rock ...
– guitars
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
* Fred Durst
William Frederick Durst (born August 20, 1970) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and director. He is the frontman and lyricist of the nu metal band Limp Bizkit, formed in 1994, with whom he has released seven studio albums.
He ap ...
– vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
* DJ Lethal
Leor Dimant ( lv, Leors Dimants, russian: Леор Григорьевич Димант, ; born December 18, 1972), better known as DJ Lethal, is a Latvian-American turntablist and producer and is best known as a member of the groups House of Pai ...
– turntables
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
, keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
, samples, programming
* John Otto – drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
* Sam Rivers – bass
Production
* Todd Douglas – business affairs
* Cory Durst – photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
* Cliff Feiman – production supervisor
* Brian Frank – marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
* Susan Hilderley – business affairs
* Alex Rhees – marketing
* Dave Schiffman – mixing, recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, ...
* Jordan Schur – management
* Liam Ward – layout
Layout may refer to:
* Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page
** Comprehensive layout (comp), a proposed page layout presented by a designer to their client
* Layout (computing), the process of calculating the position of obje ...
* Howie Weinberg
Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer with over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize.
Career
Weinberg mastered Herbie Hancock's 1983 album ''Future Shock''. Other m ...
– mastering
* Boney B.eats – additional production on "Back Porch"
* Hayes – additional production on "Shotgun"
* Wes Borland – cover art design, art direction, illustration
An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vid ...
* Fred Durst – producer, management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
, art direction
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
Release history
References
{{Authority control
Limp Bizkit albums
Flip Records (1994) albums
2011 albums