While this album technically celebrated its 26th birthday in 2025, Static-X have spent the year continuing to recognize the 25th anniversary of their now iconic debut album, Wisconsin Death Trip. The band toured this past fall in support of Mudvayne's 25th commemoration of their own debut album, L.D. 50, and have also released a special "corrosive" edition collection featuring photos and videos unearthed from the promotional photoshoot for Wisconsin Death Trip, and of course demos and other rare tracks from that era. Let's take a deep dive into the history of how this album came to be, and see how the nu-industrial blend fares in this day and age.
We owe the gift of Static-X's existence to Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins, due to the fact that he introduced future frontman Wayne Static (then only known as Wayne Wells) and future drummer Ken Jay, meeting at a Virgin Records store in Chicago. Tony Campos and Koichi Fukuda would round out the lineup, and thus Static-X would be born.
Well, sort of. They originally went by the moniker Static, but realized that marketability and trademarking would be difficult with such a common word. The band had discovered a book titled Wisconsin Death Trip written by Michael Lesy in 1973 on the coffee table while spending the night with Wayne Static's sister. The book intrigued them because it details all of the deaths and tragedies that occurred in a small town in Wisconsin from 1890-1900, even including photographs of catastrophes and dead bodies. They wanted to use the title of the book as their band name, but their record label didn't like it because it was too long. Thus, the band became known as Static-X, the debut album as Wisconsin Death Trip, and the rest is history.
The band signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1998 and recruited Ulrich Wild to produce the album. They had originally wanted to work with Terry Date (Deftones, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit), but couldn't afford him, so they instead chose to work with Wild, who was Date's assistant. The three singles released from their debut album include "Push It", "I'm With Stupid", and "Bled For Days" which are incidentally also the first three songs on the track listing. The world would be introduced to the powerhouses that are Static-X through Wisconsin Death Trip on March 23rd, 1999. They would go on to join the stacked Ozzfest 2000 bill the following year to further promote their debut. It would go on to peak at 107 on the US Billboard 200, as well as officially become RIAA certified platinum in 2001. Fans clearly hold this album in high regard, as this is their most commercially successful offering, and it has also been named one of the greatest nu metal albums and one of the best albums of 1999.
The album kicks off with the anthemic "Push It", a full two and a half minutes of heavy industrial metal that will rock your socks off. There's a reason why it remains their most popular song to date with over 134 million streams on Spotify alone. It encapsulates everything you need to know about the band and what would become their definitive sound right off the bat. This track contains lyrics including "Corrosive tainted by my sin", "Corrosive hallowing the hands", and "My mind is corrosive/I trip on corrosive", clearly inspiring the title of the 25th Anniversary Corrosive Edition. The word itself is also significant because it is the process of deterioration of a refined metal caused by a chemical reaction to the environment, which can also be interpreted as Static-X's goal to provide a raw and gritty kind of metal, rather than a clean and refined version, as a result of their life experiences that shaped them into who they are. The band's sound and imagery evokes that of machines and robots, which are not immune to corrosion, so it could also be viewed as Static-X themselves are the machines and their environment is causing them to corrode. "Push It" has that headbanging groove that would pioneer its own genre, which the band has lovingly dubbed "evil disco". This is a song that everyone should experience a mosh pit to at least once in their lives, it is incredibly fun and goes from releasing aggression to jamming out with fellow concertgoers.
Static-X saw the success that industrial bands such as Nine Inch Nails had, and of course nu metal bands like Korn and Slipknot were taking the world by storm, so they combined elements of both genres, as well as adding their "evil disco" spin to create something new and unique that hadn't been seen in the mainstream. Part of the band's success can be attributed to the fact that fans were intrigued by their distinct sound, having elements of but not being quite comparable to their contemporaries in Powerman 5000, Ministry, Coal Chamber, and Fear Factory. Static-X incorporated the electronic samples and staccato instrument playing from industrial metal with the funky groove and frantic vocal delivery often found in nu metal, with the cherry on top of the evil disco cake being the rhythm in which they played that made people want to move and dance. Songs such as "Bled For Days", "I Am", "Otsegolation", "Fix", "Wisconsin Death Trip" and "Sweat of the Bud" are energetic and infectious; it is literally impossible to stay still either while listening through headphones or live in concert. Static-X is undoubtedly one of those bands that you have to listen to in the car with the volume all the way up, windows down, and pray to God you don't get a speeding ticket.
The mechanical imagery that has become associated with the band started as early as Wisconsin Death Trip. They aimed for a machine-like sound with the drums, but didn't want to use an actual drum machine, so they crafted their own triggering system in order to get the sound that they wanted to achieve. The electronic programming that Wayne Static and Koichi Fukuda added to the music gave many songs on the album an industrial factory vibe. One of my fondest childhood memories is playing Crash Bandicoot games with my sister and listening to Static-X (specifically "I'm With Stupid"), thinking that the music fit perfectly with the factory levels. The claymation parts of the "Push It" music video also remind me of these levels. It features a robot mascot with a head sporting an "X" as a face, and this mascot still makes appearances in their live shows to this day. Many of the guitar riffs are repeated throughout the songs, and while being repetitive may seem like a negative critique, in this case it adds to the robotic feel they were gunning for. A captivating guitar riff would be established at the beginning of the song and would rarely be deviated from for the duration of the track. Lastly, Wayne Static's movements while performing were often stiff and mechanical, evoking that of a robot, again with repeated motions.
Wayne Static was an enigma, to say the least. People were drawn to him upon first glance because of his crazy, tall, spiky hair and braided beard. Some might believe he was crazed with his unique look, tendency to flash the crazy eyes while performing, and seemingly incoherent screaming. The music video for "I'm With Stupid" perfectly captures the essence of who Wayne Static the frontman was. His vocal style doesn't allow him to enunciate properly due to screaming and frenzied almost-rapping delivery of the lyrics, so Wisconsin Death Trip is one of those albums that is enjoyed because of how dope it sounds rather than the actual words being sang.
I will admit, I didn't know most of the lyrics to these songs until looking them for up this review, but that never stopped me from singing along and making similar sounding noises when I didn't know the words. While reading the lyrics, they didn't make much sense or were very simplistic and didn't seem to have much of a deep underlying meaning. No one is accusing Static-X of being lyrical geniuses and writing grandiose masterpieces, especially with lyrics like "Your shit's like chocolate cake / And your ass smells like a rose" from "Love Dump".
All in all, there is not a bad song on this album. There are a few songs that feel kind of lackluster, but the rest is a home run out of the damn ballpark. The beginning half of Wisconsin Death Trip is heavy hitter after heavy hitter, with many of these songs consistently being added into the concert setlists because they are fan favorites, and for good reason. Of course their most recent tours would be WDT heavy as they continued to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its release, with 9 out of the 12 songs being played, but even before that, 7 out of the 12 tracks were selected for the setlist. This album deserves all of the recognition and praise that it has gotten over the past 26 years, and while it is not perfect, it was revolutionary and refreshing. Wisconsin Death Trip is a special piece of art that absolutely still holds up to this day, even with the nostalgia lens removed.
Reminisce on the good ol' days below:
