S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

After recording their independent debut album Fungus Amongus (1995), Incubus signed a seven-record deal with Epic/Sony-affiliated Immortal Records in 1996. An EP titled Enjoy Incubus was released by Epic/Immortal at the beginning of 1997, and Incubus would go on a European tour with labelmates Korn and The Urge for the next few months. With Enjoy Incubus, the label's strategy was to build the band's fanbase through touring rather than radio airplay. Guitarist Mike Einziger had previously been using an Ibanez RG570, and spent his money from the record company to purchase a Paul Reed Smith guitar. The four founding band members were in their early 20s at this point, and dropped out of school once getting signed, with Pasillas recalling "before then, each one of us were enrolled in schools because there was part of us that wanted to appease our parents. Getting signed was our okay to drop out of school." According to singer Brandon Boyd, "S.C.I.E.N.C.E. was done in six weeks at 4th Street Recording, a very small, charming studio in Santa Monica. Very different experience, but very important on this band's existence." While the single "New Skin" originated a few years prior, Pasillas claimed in 2002 that for other songs they had two months to write the music. He added, "it was cool for us, because we had a lot of ideas and it was a pretty compressed amount of time. The circumstances weren't ideal — we were working in a dingy little rehearsal room — but at that time we didn't care. We were playing music for a living." According to Pasillas, they wrote 14 songs for S.C.I.E.N.C.E. in total. Pasillas similarly noted the lack of outside influence in 2017, saying "we didn’t have label people coming in hovering above us making sure we weren't wasting money. We were left to our own devices and we worked well that way." He also believes that Incubus still hadn't found a distinct voice of their own yet, saying in 2022 that they sounded like the offspring from a "crazy orgy" between Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Björk and other artists. For the liner notes, every member except DJ Lyfe and bassist Alex Katunich used a pseudonym made specifically for the album, with Boyd's being "Cornelius", Einziger's being "Jawa" and Pasillas's being "Badmammajamma". The concept of using pseudonyms was carried over from Fungus Amongus and Enjoy Incubus, where the members had been using several different ones created specifically for those releases, including the pseudonyms "Happy Knappy" and "Brandon of the Jungle" (used by Boyd), and the pseudonyms "Fabio" and "Dynamike" (used by Einziger). Katunich used the pseudonym "Dirk Lance" for all three of these releases, while DJ Lyfe used the pseudonym "Kid Lyfe" for Enjoy Incubus, before deciding to use his regular stage name for S.C.I.E.N.C.E.. This song also briefly appeared in the movie itself, which was released to theaters on August 1, 1997. It samples the 1960 song "Theme for Doris", by jazz musician Tina Brooks. Boyd claimed in a 1997 Kerrang! interview that he had seen the Spawn movie, and described it as "a really shitty movie" with "a great soundtrack". Incubus later toured with Far, and on promotional photos for 2001's Morning View, Einziger can be seen wearing a hoodie with the cover of their 1997 EP Soon. ==Musical style and influences==

Musically, S.C.I.E.N.C.E. has been described as nu metal, funk metal, and rap metal. heavy metal, funk, and electro. "Magic Medicine", described as a trip hop track, samples a recorded reading of a children's book. Paul Elliot of Kerrang! wrote in May 1998 that "at their lightest — on 'Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)' for example — Incubus are deliciously, irresistibly funky. And at their heaviest — notably on the frantic 'Favorite Things' — they're reminiscent of Faith No More at their wildest." Elliot added that people who were upset about the split of Faith No More "[should go along] to an Incubus gig." In 1997, Boyd said "people are real quick to put labels on music, so I'm sure they're going to do that with us. But we think we're doing something cool, and judging from the responses that we've gotten from all over the world, others do too." In interviews from the late 2010s and 2020s, Boyd has said that he dislikes the nu metal label and doesn't consider the band's early work to be part of the movement. In a 2022 Metal Hammer interview, he remarked, "we weren’t trying to fit into a particular niche at a particular time. We were just kids being influenced by a small handful of bands that we grew up with." Revolver describe Brandon Boyd as vocally "drawing on the eccentric funk-rap" of Faith No More, Primus and Red Hot Chili Peppers. They consider him to have a "goofy yet also badass presence" on S.C.I.E.N.C.E. Through Mr. Bungle, Boyd also went on to become a fan of avant-garde musician John Zorn, who produced their 1991 debut album. In a 2003 interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Boyd said that around this period, both he and Einziger gravitated towards more experimental artists that "you'll never hear on the radio". Alex Katunich uses a slap bass playing style on the album, and has said he was influenced by funk music since he was a young child, and got an album of Disney songs done in disco style. In a 1998 interview, Boyd was asked about whether Incubus was influenced by Faith No More, who had broken up in April of that year, and he commented, "there's a definite influence from Faith No More. All of us have been listening to that band since when we were really young. We were like 14 or something when that album [The Real Thing] came out. They were an awesome band, they did some really groundbreaking things in their time, and it's kind of a bummer to hear that they broke up." Boyd also noted in October 1997 that they were frequently compared to both Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, saying "when people do try and compare us, it's usually with those two bands." In addition to these influences, the band became interested in emerging electronic genres like drum and bass around the making of S.C.I.E.N.C.E., with their previous full-length album Fungus Amongus having no influence from electronic genres. While playing at European festivals with Korn and The Urge during early 1997, they recall being exposed to foreign electronic acts such as The Chemical Brothers. ==Songs==

About the opening track "Redefine", Boyd said in 1997: On the single "New Skin", he further elaborated: The song "Favorite Things", according to Boyd, related to the topic of religion: "Favorite Things" also includes a sample of the 1959 track "Flamenco Fantasy", by easy listening group the 101 Strings Orchestra. The song has a similar title to "My Favorite Things", from the musical The Sound of Music, with both songs repeatedly mentioning their titles in the lyrics. However, it does not musically reference "My Favorite Things". The single "A Certain Shade of Green" has been described as being a song about procrastination. The line "Are you gonna stand around till 2012 A.D.?" is a reference to an interpretation of the Mayan calendar which dictated that the world would end on December 21, 2012. Boyd did not believe this to be true, but it was on his mind as his mother was researching it for a book called Maya Memory: The Glory That Was Palenque. At that time, Hoobastank were unsigned and also playing a funk metal-style of music inspired by bands like Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. By the time Hoobastank signed to Island Records in 2000, they got rid of Wasser and had changed their sound to a more straightforward rock style. The penultimate track "Deep Inside" is another of the lighter songs on the album, drawing heavily from funk music. However, it also has a short heavy metal section beginning roughly 3 minutes into the song. The lyrics reference being high on drugs at 3 A.M., and as the song goes on the time progresses to 4 A.M. and eventually 5 A.M. "Deep Inside" stopped being performed live when Alex Katunich left Incubus at the beginning of April 2003, with the last known performance coming during December 2001. The closing track "Calgone" lyrically revolves around an alien abduction. It ends with a sound clip of the band arguing with DJ Lyfe (who is referred to by his real name of Gavin), for supposedly deleting a track they had been working on in the studio. On physical versions of the album, "Calgone" is followed by a hidden track called "Segue 1", which plays after 30 seconds of silence. The hidden track is also known as "Jose Loves Kate Moss, Part 1", and has been treated as a separate track on streaming sites such as Spotify. It begins with a sound recording at a morgue, and the pathologist is describing injuries a patient had sustained during a car crash on May 12, 1997. The hidden track goes on to feature several different sound samples and funk/electronic musical pieces. It samples sounds from the 1985 Sorcerer pinball machine and the song "Show Me Your Titz", from Hoobastank's 1997 demo Muffins. ==Title and artwork==

In 1997, Einziger claimed that the title reflected the experimental nature of the album, and the creative freedom the band were given. He was quoted as saying, "our album is called S.C.I.E.N.C.E. because we were able to experiment. We were able to take our time and get everything to sound the way we wanted it to — weird science and energetic funk." It has also been mentioned by various band members that the acronym S.C.I.E.N.C.E. stands for ''Sailing Catamarans Is Every Nautical Captain's Ecstasy''. "Sometimes, we just sit around and come up with these for laughs. In other words, there's not just one meaning, it's just food for thought," said Boyd in 1998. In other early interviews, band members claimed that the title stood for ''Stupid Cops Invade Everyone's Natural Chaotic Energy, Sounds Cool in Eyes Near Communistic Entities and Surreal Cats in Economics Never Communicate Estacticly''. The cover art features a photo of the head of Boyd's father, who had earlier appeared on the cover of Enjoy Incubus. The source of the photos were unknown at the time, and the man on the cover of these releases came to be known as 'Chuck'. The cover is also the first to include the band's current logo, which has been used on every subsequent studio album (with the exception of A Crow Left of the Murder... and Light Grenades). ==Touring and promotion==

Shortly before the release of S.C.I.E.N.C.E., Incubus played a handful of shows with rap rock bands Phunk Junkeez and Shootyz Groove. To support the album, Incubus went on tour with 311 and Sugar Ray between October 1997 and December 1997. Incubus was the least known act on this tour, and were initially only meant to perform on the first leg of it. However, the crowd response to them was so great that they were asked to stay for the rest of the tour. During late 1997, the album's first two singles "A Certain Shade of Green" and "Redefine" were released to radio. That year, a music video for "A Certain Shade of Green" was also made. In February 1998, DJ Lyfe was fired by the band, and was replaced by DJ Chris Kilmore. The reasoning given for his firing was because of creative and personal differences, and because Incubus could no longer be a "productive family" with him in it. Kilmore was recommended by a friend of the band, and received a phone call on Friday February 13, 1998, where he was asked to audition. The audition took place the next day at the Sound Arena Studios in Reseda, Los Angeles. Following the end of the audition, Kilmore was given a cassette tape with 16 live recordings of Fungus Amongus and S.C.I.E.N.C.E. songs, as he had not heard any of the band's music at that point. According to Kilmore, the band played a total of 305 shows between the time he joined the band and the end of 1998. Incubus were able to get on Ozzfest 1998 since Ozzy Osbourne's son Jack liked the band's music. He also helped them get on the 2000 edition of Ozzfest, and at the urging of Sharon Osbourne and the Osbourne family, Incubus were chosen as a support act for some of Black Sabbath's reunion shows in January 1999. Boyd recalled in 2021 that while touring with Black Sabbath in January 1999, the members of Pantera made fun of Incubus for wearing "baggy jeans", and at one point came to their dressing room with a platter that had new wrangler jeans and shots of Jack Daniel's whiskey. They urged them to try on the jeans and take a shot, with Boyd saying "I think I still have them somewhere and took a shot and almost threw up... never been a big drinker." Katunich later remembered that they had to play their heaviest songs while on metal-oriented tours such as these, in order to go over well with the crowds. Years later, Michael Jackson's daughter Paris Jackson would open for Incubus. Boyd found out that his girlfriend who he had been dating since 1991 was having an affair while he was away on tour for S.C.I.E.N.C.E.. Writing for Make Yourself began in early 1999, after the shows with Black Sabbath and Pantera. Kilmore also recalls that, "during S.C.I.E.N.C.E. our crowd was all teenage kids wearing black and they were all men. Once 'Pardon Me' started getting some traction the crowd turned into half-girl crowds. Then when 'Stellar' and 'Drive' came out, those half-girl crowds became all screaming teenage girls in the front row." Einziger stated, "It was a very masculine time in music and we were associated with that. We would be playing Ozzfest tours with all these different bands who were our good friends and there was pressure to be like that. I think the tenderness and emotional side of the [later] music was a reaction to all that aggressive music that was happening at that time. Our reaction was to go in the other direction." ==Release and reception==

Commercial response In early 1999, S.C.I.E.N.C.E. and Enjoy Incubus were estimated to have sold a combined total of 200,000 units, with S.C.I.E.N.C.E. having sold around 150,000 copies at the beginning of 2000. The remastering for the 2001 reissue was done at Marcussen Mastering, and it came as an enhanced CD that included the music video for "A Certain Shade of Green". Einziger said in 2011 that S.C.I.E.N.C.E. had sold nearly a million copies in the United States, and over a million when combined with international sales. Critical response Critics wrote favorably of the album's diverse style. Pitchfork gave it an 8.7 out of 10, stating "this CD successfully combines all sorts of shit without sounding like a mess. Here you have a song: it's got a phat-chunk bass beat twanging fast in back, some crazy electro squornks and bleeps coming and going, sudden snatches of full-blown guitar-jam, a rapid-fire Patton-esque vocalist (Brandon Boyd), all the while someone scratching vinyl and a drummer back there hammering merrily along." Spin in 1998 pointed out not only the band's usage of turntables, but also their usage of the didgeridoo and djembe instruments. In his August 1998 review, Jason Hradil of The Lantern wrote that Boyd has "an intense voice similar to Faith No More's Mike Patton." In an October 1997 article focusing on an Incubus concert with 311 and Sugar Ray, Dan Nailen of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News had a positive view of the band's music. He wrote, "combining super-phat beats, rap-style turntable-scratching and crunchy heavy-metal guitar riffs, Incubus is nothing if not unique. Add to the musical mix the pilable vocals of frontman Brandon Boyd, reminiscent of Faith No More's Mike Patton, and you have music as interesting as Sugar Ray's is lame." Matt Peiken of Modern Drummer magazine awarded it three and a half out of five stars in March 1998. He praised the band's technical ability but noted a lack of focus on the album, saying "Incubus plays with listeners' minds in Faith No More-ish fashion [and] at times it's hard to tell whether the band is attempting to dish out some serious music or simply kicking out kitsch." Accolades VH1 ranked the album tenth on their 2015 list of "The 12 Most Underrated Nu Metal Albums", and also included it in their lists of the top 10 albums of 1997 and the top 20 best metal albums of 1997. When ranking Incubus's discography in 2020, Kerrang! placed S.C.I.E.N.C.E. third, remarking, "for fans of the band’s heavier, zanier leanings, this remains the high bar against which Incubus releases are now measured. Given the subsequent departures from this template, however, it’s likely those early adopters have been left disappointed. You could therefore argue that S.C.I.E.N.C.E. is something of a creative albatross around the band’s neck." In 2024, Ultimate Guitar included it on a list titled "10 Classic Albums That Defined the '90s Alternative Metal Scene". ==Legacy==

Dylan P. Gadino of CMJ New Music Monthly reflected in November 2001 that Incubus "dropped their major-label debut, S.C.I.E.N.C.E., the same year as some nix-metal founders — 1997 also saw the releases of Limp Bizkit's ''Three Dollar Bill, Y'all'' and Sevendust's eponymous disc — yet Incubus's music [was] generally more inspired and layered than the efforts of their brooding counterparts." In November 2001, Amy Sciarretto of sister publication CMJ New Music Report further wrote, "Incubus was poised to be hard rock's bastard child of Faith No More and Primus thanks to its resident hottie Brandon Boyd's easy-on-the-ears emulation of Mike Patton and Dirk Lance's bass thwapping. But between 1997's S.C.I.E.N.C.E. and 1999's Make Yourself, the album that broke Incubus at rock radio, the band took a stylistic turn." Rolling Stone commented in 2002 that "they broke through to the Ozzfest crowd with 1997's eclectic funk-metal album, S.C.I.E.N.C.E.." The 2003 book The Rough Guide to Rock claimed that it was "better and far more accomplished" than their previous releases Enjoy Incubus and Fungus Amongus. In 2004, David Clayman of IGN called it "fairly impressive, considering the band's age and experience at the time of those recordings." That same year, Nick Romanow of the Daily Collegian reflected that with S.C.I.E.N.C.E., Incubus "had the potential to become the next Faith No More", noting that "the comparison was even heightened by charismatic frontman Brandon Boyd’s vocal similarities to Mike Patton, Faith No More’s innovative singer." He also said that by Morning View they had "abandoned their will to be as innovative as Faith No More". Loudwire praised it in 2019, saying "before their music almost entirely mellowed out, Incubus were a high energy genre-bending band of misfits. The sophomore effort fused metal, hip-hop, trip-hop, funk, jazz and even a little bit of house music." On the album's 20th anniversary in 2017, Spin wrote that it mixes "cartoonish slap bass with bongwater-soaked guitar distortion [and] dubby drum-n-bass with samples from children’s audiobooks." They added, "you’d almost expect it to have died in a psychedelics-related car accident before it reached the distinguished age of 20." Tosin Abasi, guitarist of progressive metal band Animals as Leaders, has mentioned being influenced by it, with his band later touring with Incubus in 2022. The band's greatest hits releases The Essential Incubus (2012) and Playlist: The Very Best of Incubus (2013) both include songs from the album, while their initial greatest hits release Monuments and Melodies (2009) only included an acoustic version of "A Certain Shade of Green", which was not recorded during the S.C.I.E.N.C.E. era. In 2003, the song "Vitamin" was also featured in the horror film Final Destination 2. ==Live performance==

Incubus did not often perform songs from S.C.I.E.N.C.E. between the late 2000s and early 2010s, with Boyd telling Spin in 2017, "there was a period of years when we were knowingly rebelling against it, we were desperately trying to shake off the identity it had created around us. Our original fans would get mad, 'Why don’t you play more stuff from S.C.I.E.N.C.E.?' I think it only happened two or three years ago, when we were touring again, and started to revisit the songs casually in rehearsal studios and sound checks. We started to fall in love with them again. I think we just needed a friend break." ==Track listing==

Incubus • Brandon Boyd – lead vocals, percussion • Mike Einziger – guitar, backing vocals • Alex Katunich – bass • Gavin Koppel – turntables • José Pasillas – drums Additional musicians • Charles Waltz – violin • Jeremy Wasser – saxophone on "Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)" Production • Jim Wirt – producer • Ulrich Wild – engineer • CJ Eiriksson – engineer • Donat Kazarinoff – engineer • Matthew Kallen – assistant engineer • Terry Date – mixing • Stephen Marcussen – mastering, remastering • Frank Harkins – art direction • Chris McCann – photography ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==