x-ecutioners - "it's going down"

ok, linkin park dude drops some perfunctory rhymes but i love the sound of his voice. the x-ecutioners themselves bung in some scratches. some guy who i think is from static x plays a nasty, totally fucking hooky regulation nu-metal riff. (yeah this is nu-metal alright - the emphasis is all on the riff and the way it interacts with the voice.)

the best thing that's been learnt since the rage against the machine era is that you don't need to constantly shout just because the music is aggressive - linkin park dude is swaggering all over the beat, he knows that all-out aggression isn't channelling anything interesting from hiphop, and quite possibly he knows that swagger + aggression is what delivers the most fun. this is of course the simplistic equation behind all the best limp bizkit singles (linkin park break all this down to a terrifyingly exact science for maximum impact, not unlike the endlessly refined dynamics of dancefloor fillers in any electronic genre... most of the time i can only gasp in awe), but "it's going down" doesn't lose its cool like every bizkit song does by the time it hits the cathartic chorus (which they do brilliantly). the riff is beefed up but for once there's no tension release. this is refreshing, definitely: i want to listen to it over and over, but i'm not sure if soon i will demand some big screaming chorus action again.