Bring it on
With Chocolate St*rfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, the Limp Bizkit five-man assault crew bring it on like it never has before. With over 13 tracks including one thats so phat it had to be presented in two different versions in order to fit everything in the quintet from Jacksonville, FL, thats spent the past four years turning the rock world on its head and spinning it round and round is back with its third album, a set of songs thats deeper, denser and harder hitting than anything thats preceded it.

Its kind of a combination, explains Wes Borland, the guitarist of many faces. Its a third level as a combination of Significant Other and Three Dollar Bill, Yall$, kind of the heaviness of Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ but more mature and focused in a better way.

Adds drummer John Otto, Its us with different edges.

On Chocolate St*rfish, those edges are the product of growth, maturity, and the confidence that comes from being one of the worlds most distinctive, popular, and, when necessary, controversial bands. People are aftaid of this band, says Borland, who makes that observation with a certain degree of pride. After all, a hint of danger has always been one of the vanguards of rock n roll.

Limp Bizkit formed six years ago in Jacksonville, an assemblage of visionaries brought together by frontman Fred Durst, a former Navy plebe turned tattoo artist whod been writing raps since he was 14. The collision of sensibilities between Durst, Otto, Borland, bassist Sam Rivers and House of Pain DJ Lethal formed a synthesis that was entirely of its time, a sonic barrage of crunchy power chords, phat grooves and psycho-delic loops that was without precedent- at least all under the same roof.

The 1997 debut Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ ushered Limp Bizkit inot the platinum house, thanks to an irreverent hit remake of George Michaels Faith and an attention-getting spot on the 1998 OZZFest bill, with its famous giant toilet stage prop. But Limp Bizkit really ascended to te throne with 1999s Significant Other, a ranting, raging masterpiece that debuted at No. 1 on Billboard Top 200, selling 634,874 copies during its first week of release and went on to sell more than six million copies.

As Durst notes on the new album, Lim Bizkit crawled up you butt somehow/and thats when things got turned around, and what followed was a torrent of activity and accolades that left scorched earth and happily spent mosh pits. With the hits Nookie, Rearranged, Break Stuff as a soundtrack played at the WHFStival in Washington, D.C., and at Woodstock 99 in Rome, N.Y., and it headlined the 1999 Family Values tour. Durst was named a Senior Vice-President at Interscope and started his own label, Flawless; he also signed on to direct the films Natures Cure and Runt. Rivers, meanwhile, was named the Best Rock Bass Player at the 2000 Orville H. Gibson Guitar Awards.

And as it set out to start work on what would become Chocolate St*rfish, Limp Bizkit was also tapped to record the theme song for Mission Impossible 2, scoring a summer hit with Take a Look Around which is also featured on the new album.

The keywords for Chocolate St*rfish were bigger, badder, harder, heavier, phatter, funkieryou get the idea. Theres a lot of really good melody, and everything about every part is pretty catchy, says Otto. Its new and really melodic. Theres all kinds of different hooks going on within the music. You could listen to the music by itself, really, but once the vocals get over and Lee does all his DJ stuff, it takes it up to that enormous, killer level.