| Blackout | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Hed PE |
| Cover: | Blackout cover.jpg |
| Released: | March 18, 2003 |
| Recorded: | 2002 |
| Studio: | The Machine Shop, Hoboken, New Jersey / Studio West, San Diego, California / Cello Studios, Hollywood, California / Chunky Style Music, Los Angeles, California / NRG Recording Services, North Hollywood, California |
| Length: | 49:46 |
| Label: | Jive Music for Nations Volcano |
| Producer: | Machine, Steve Thompson, Mike Bradford |
| Chronology: | Hed PE |
| Prev Title: | Broke |
| Prev Year: | 2000 |
| Next Title: | Only in Amerika |
| Next Year: | 2004 |
Blackout is the third studio album by American rock band Hed PE. Released on March 18, 2003, Blackout peaked at number 33 on the Billboard 200, selling 28,000 copies in its first week,[2] while its title track peaked at number 21 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and at number 32 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.[3] A second single, "Other Side", peaked at number 40 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.[4] The album also peaked at number 102 in the United Kingdom.[5] The song "Get Away" is featured in NASCAR Thunder 2003 produced by EA Sports. Sonny Mayo is credited playing guitar, but didn't play according to an interview with Good Company.This is the last release by the band to have two Guitarists, after Chizad quit in 2002.
Jared Gomes later reflected unfavorably on the album's production, claiming that the label was trying to achieve commercial success by forcing a nu metal sound.[6] Gomes stated in 2011, "all my decisions were being overlooked by the record company I was under when producing it… causing me to hold back on things, change song structures and all other kinds of shit in order to try and get into the radio friendly scene to fit in with the nu-metal movement… and as I complied I grew to dislike what I was becoming."[6] Eventually, Gomes said, he would try to make the band's next album, Only in Amerika as uncommercial as possible, to provoke people lyrically as a backlash against the more commercial sound of Blackout.[6]
Allmusic's Johnny Loftus wrote that "While it expands on melodic elements that had previously played a supporting role in the band's sound, Blackout also delivers truckloads of crushing guitar and pounding rhythm. And whether or not it is the presence of a top-line producer, (hed) pe have figured out a way to imbue their aggressive mix of heavy rock and hip-hop with some serious hooks."
Beatdust described the band as "becoming another Limp Bizkit clone" with Blackout and the previous album Broke, which were recorded to pay back the losses owed to the label to recoup the commercial failure of the band's 1997 self-titled debut album.[7] Jared Gomes has dismissed the album as "corporate junk".[8]