One of my favourite albums is 17 years old today.

[K]

On March 3rd, 1997, Stuck Mojo released their third album, Rising, making today the 17th anniversary of its release. Coincidentally, this is also the 19th anniversary of their first album, Snappin' Necks, and the 18th anniversary of the release of the Violated EP. Both are amazing productions, but I thought I would focus on Rising, as that's the album I fell in love with, and it obviously has a special place in the hearts of wrestling fans, as the video for the lead single - Rising - featured guest appearances from WCW's Raven and DDP, and premièred on WCW Monday Nitro, catapulting them into an audience of angry teenagers all over the world.

Stuck Mojo are probably THE crossover band, and though there had been fusions of rap and rock before, (Beastie Boys, Run DMC), and even bands taking rap and metal to their logical conclusions (Rage Against The Machine), few bands before Mojo had merged Punk and Metal so successfully. Stuck Mojo took the ingredients that Body Count and 24-7 Spies were working with, and made something so perfect, that they defined a genre by themselves.

Rising was a slight departure from the previous three releases, featuring a more melodic musical style and an emphasis on rapped vocals, compared with the frankly brutal punk delivery on the previous release, Pigwalk, making Rising the bands most successful release to date.

To call Stuck Mojo’s infectious swirl of genres a metal/hip-hop crossover doesn’t do them justice. Without sacrificing melody and songwriting, you can’t get any heavier than the jacked tandem of Rich Ward’s guitars and the devastating bottom end of bassist Corey Lowery (brother of Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery) and drummer Bud Fontsere. Add frontman Bonz to the mix, who unleashes a vocal arsenal that couples a hip-hop delivery with punk-metal tendencies, and you’ve got the bastard child of Pantera (who Stuck Mojo will tour Europe with in June) and Rage Against the Machine, a groove-heavy explosion that makes Ice T’s Body Count look like a garage outfit.

- Maximum Ink Magazine

I think it's also fair to say that this is the last time the band would write together a as a group before their initial breakup in 2000. During the early years, Rich Ward would work on the music independently with a guitar and a drum machine, and present the music to vocalist Bonz, who would write the lyrics, but Bonz' drug issues caused tensions within the band, and the following release 'Declaration of a Headhunter', was written almost entirely by Ward, and it shows. Declaration of a Headhunter saw Bonz almost relegated to back-up vocalist, while Rich Wards secondary vocals were promoted. Though Bonz was still listed as lead vocalist, that's not what comes across in the final mix, and Rich Wards title in the linear notes "Duke of Metal", seems to indicate that Bonz was no longer a driving force in the band.

Rich Ward considered Declaration the most polished album Mojo had produced up to that point, and why wouldn't he? He did all the polishing. But polished isn't what I look for in a Stuck Mojo album. Stuck Mojo took punk music, and rap music, and forced them to work together, almost against the will of the genres themselves. Sure at times it's harsh, almost difficult to listen to, but isn't that the point? Stuck Mojos lyrics were about political, social and racial divides, and these are subjects not easy to talk about, the rough-around-the-edges, rusty, metallic - almost dangerous - sound of the earlier albums were the perfect backdrop for these issues. These songs were the soundtrack to (to borrow a wrestling reference) the attitude era, and polishing them to shine isn't what the music was about.

That said, there isn't a single Mojo album that I don't still listen to, Declaration included. Even when Bonz was removed from the band for the aforementioned drug problems, and replaced with 'Lord' Nelson, the bands output was good solid crossover rap metal, but I don't think any album will ever combine punk, rap and metal as perfectly as Rising did.

"Stuck Mojo is the real deal. The pioneers of a sound that a thousand bands have tried to emulate. Nothing is ever as good as the original."

- Stevie Benton, Drowning Pool, Boiler Room, ETDLAP

I've always been a fan of Stuck Mojo since their debut release. Although "some" artists in the 80's had done a song or two mixing rap with rock/metal, none actually made it their sound. Stuck Mojo WAS the style that few are noted as only having slightly experimented with. At the time, music wasn't infusing heavy metal and blues riffs, occasional growling vocals, and a rap style delivery.

- Todd La Torre, Queensrÿche

"When I was 16 I picked up an album called Pigwalk after seeing a live video of Stuck Mojo on Headbangers Ball. The moment I put it on I was hooked. The sound was something I'd never heard before, the aggression, the groove blew me away. Rich Ward instantly became one of my Guitar Hero's and he's had a massive part of making me the guitar player I am today.

- Matt Tuck, Bullet for My Valentine

BONUS FEATURE:

Me and Ryan 'Dragon27' Dawson, meeting for the first time in the front row of a Stuck Mojo gig in London.

Drags has the mop hair and the Iron Maiden shirt, I have the buzzed hair to his left.