Unstable by Adema

Unstable, Adema's second album, arrived on Arista in August 2003, and it's the Bakersfield, California band trying to grow out of the nu-metal box they'd been packed into. Howard Benson produced, with recording in Valley Village, and a lot of the songs lean on the playing and on harmony instead of burying everything in distortion. Mark Chavez still sings like a man working through something, and the guitars of Tim Fluckey and Mike Ransom, Dave DeRoo's bass and Kris Kohls' drums get more room to breathe.

The title track was the single. The album opened at 43 on the Billboard 200 before sliding off fast, and sold around 400,000 copies worldwide. It was the last record from the original five: amid conflicts with the rest of the band, Ransom walked in 2003 and Chavez followed in 2004, and Planets arrived with a new singer.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.