Break the Cycle

1	Open Your Eyes
2	Pressure
3	Fade
4	It's Been Awhile
5	Change
6	Can't Believe
7	Epiphany
8	Suffer
9	Warm Safe Place
10	For You
11	Outside
12	Waste
13	Take It
14	It's Been Awhile (Acoustic Version)

Barnes & Noble

They say you can catch a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar -- an adage that's borne into the nu-metal world by this gaggle of tattooed but sensitive angst-mongers. Best known thus far for getting mentor Fred Durst in touch with his softer side on the brooding, MTV-endorsed acoustic ballad "Outside" -- a somewhat rougher alternate version of which is included on Break the Cycle -- Staind veer wildly between macho and mellow on this sophomore outing. On the former front, Aaron Lewis manages to lace self-explanatory tunes like "Suffer" and "Waste" with plenty of disaffected, monosyllabic grunting, made all the more stark by guitarist Mike Mushok's steel-cage guitar scraping. But try as they might, Staind don't quite cut it as purveyors of fury: As demonstrated by stultifying tracks like "It's Been a While" and "Pressure," they're a bit too stiff and mannered to bring the noise believably. Fortunately for them, they're already showing signs of outgrowing the angry-young-outcast shtick. "Epiphany" finds them dabbling in prog-pop, complete with a real live string section, and "Warm Safe Place" encroaches on the droning goth territory that's gone unguarded since the abdication of the Cure. With evidence of more than one color in their palette, Staind may yet prove to be more indelible than the bulk of their peers. David Sprague

All Music Guide

The title of Staind's sophomore album refers to the misery passed on from generation to generation; specifically, singer Aaron Lewis' family issues. And Break the Cycle is an issues album -- Lewis' therapy session for all to hear. "For You" reads like a final confession from child to parent ("I am f*cked up because you are"), and on the hit single "It's Been Awhile," he sings, "I cannot blame this on my father." Staind wraps up all this pain in deceivingly melodic packages, sort of like Nirvana's "All Apologies" without the depth. Lewis has a Kurt Cobain-like ache to his voice, which makes the more affecting songs -- like the acoustic version of "Outside" -- genuine (or at least appear that way). Cycle is ultimately no more than 50 minutes of standard-issue desolation, but the softness of many of the tracks gives it compassion, something most of Staind's peers have no time for. Michael Gallucci