Album review: Limp Bizkit – Still Sucks

Fred Durst is a ‘Fredache’, according to the trash-talking back and forth that make up the wryly titled Love The Hate. His raps ‘Suck like a vacuum bag’. He’s ‘The worst white rapper that’ll ever be’, he ‘Sure as fuck ain’t no Eminem’, and ‘he looks like he’s got Drake’s pubes on his chin’.

‘You telling me that you listen to that shit?’ one side of the equation asks.

‘Not really,’ replies a nervous sounding Fred Durst. ‘Not now. But back when I was a kid…’

Are Limp Bizkit trolling on a scale that can only properly be seen from space? Yes. But what’s new? As Fred says in the chorus: ‘Joke's on you, you missed one clue: We don't give a fuck / From what I see, you always do.’

A decade since their last album, Gold Cobra, after countless false starts, shelved ideas, the drafting in of Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes and Jordan Fish to try (and ultimately fail) to get something going, and a scrapped but equally good title in Stampede Of The Disco Elephants, Limp Bizkit are back in the most Limp Bizkit-y way possible. There’s knowingly terrible artwork, a casual release strategy, and Fred’s new Dad Vibes look which, coming from a man who once declared that he also went by the name ‘Polar Bear’, actually registers relatively low on the Dumb-O-Meter. What there aren’t is fucks. Any of them. Anywhere. Thank God.

As if to nail down the point that the Bizkit are back in Bizniz, one of the first things you hear is Fred yelling ‘DJ Lethal’ as Opener Out Of Style flexes into top gear. So, the gang's all back together. Soon after, he declares: ‘It’s time to rock this motherfucker ’cause I’m always out of style’, before adding that, actually, his band are the best and that, ‘Copycats you lucky that I let you hang around me’. Then, for no reason, he makes a passing reference to ‘A’s club banger Nothing. Brilliant.

The grandstanding continues on Turn It Up, Bitch, in which his decree that it’s ‘Another Limp banger’ is applauded by a gunshot. Later, he beats his chest and announces that he’s ‘King of nu-metal from the trash.’ All the while, that classic Bizkit spill-your-drink rock club stomp powers along, packed with the usual sounds-boneheaded-’til-you-look-properly Wes Borland riffs, while elsewhere, Barnacle has an almost Nirvana-ish thrust. Limp Bizkit 2021 might be as self-aware as they are self-aggrandising, but often that simply means doubling down on being themselves, and frequently, it’s absolutely glorious.

When they park the banter for a minute, things are still good. You Bring Out The Worst In Me flits between a mellow groove and furious, juddering nu-metal, while you can now stick on their cover of INXS’ Don’t Change when you’ve worn out Behind Blue Eyes.

Haters gonna hate, but really, this knowingly middle-aged iteration of Limp Bizkit is far more likeable and less obnoxious than their younger self. But even so, they’ve lost none of their Big Durst Energy, and the knowing winks have only become bigger and knowing-er.

Do Limp Bizkit still suck? Doesn’t matter, they’re still the Limp Bizkit you love. Or, indeed, hate. Not that they care. La de dah...

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Korn, Bring Me The Horizon, Beastie Boys

Still Sucks is out now via Suretone

Read this: The story of nu-metal in 14 songs