The Amalgamut is the third studio album by American rock band Filter, released on July 30, 2002, by Reprise Records.
In 1995, Filter found great success with their debut album Short Bus, which went platinum in the United States, based on the strength of their single "Hey Man, Nice Shot".
"[11] The reaction even led to the naming of the album; with The Amalgamut being a neologism of a portmanteau of "amalgam" and "gamut",[12] with Patrick feeling that ultimately there should be "more focus on abstract thought and individualism, as opposed to everybody trying to be the same.
[9] The track "God Damn Me" was written in between Patrick's blackouts one night when he was so heavily intoxictated that a friend kept on stopping in to wake him up to make sure he was still alive.
Patrick recalled "almost being in tears" after recording vocals for the track "Where Do We Go From Here", as he was typically smoking three to four packs of cigarettes a day, making it difficult for him to hit his higher notes, and even breathe at times.
[9] Delays also occurred upon Patrick breaking his wrist after completing a new song, celebrating it, and then slipping and falling on the ice while refusing to go to the hospital.
[17] As such, progress was continually delayed; with Patrick's timetable for a release date shifting from June 2001,[17] to July 2001,[17] to early 2002,[11] to "mid to late summer".
[17] In October 2001, Patrick alluded to a song by the title "Don't Give an Inch", which he described as sounding similar to past Filter tracks "Stuck in Here" and "Take a Picture".
"[24] In 2010, Patrick revealed that the track "Drug Boy", off of their 2010 release The Trouble With Angels, had actually been written in the Amalgamut sessions.
The band was able to perform a handful of headlining concerts around the time of the album's release, and made an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, to play the track "My Long Walk to Jail",[17] but on the eve of September 30, just before starting up a major tour to promote the album,[31] Patrick cancelled all tour dates in order to enter drug rehabilitation.
[40] This pushed off any further activity from Filter until 2008, when Patrick recorded and released a follow-up called Anthems for the Damned, largely by himself but with some from guest appearances and drummer Josh Freese.
[42] Allmusic critic Don Kline praised the album for offering "the album cleverly incorporates the best of what Short Bus and Title of Record each had to offer", and ultimately concluded that "the resulting sound is that of an updated and improved Filter, with The Amalgamut proving that there's much more to the band than "Hey Man, Nice Shot.
"[43] Ben Mitchell of Blender thought that the record adheres to the blueprint laid down by the breakthrough power ballad "Take a Picture", while also featuring heavier tracks.
"[44] Entertainment Weekly's Robert Cherry, who remarked the mixture of "skyscraping melodies, tonsil-shredding screams, electronic textures, and acoustic and metal guitars", stated: "Richard Patrick's unfocused lyrics don't offer much insight into the album's reported subject: America's cultural diversity.
"[45] Matt Ashare of Spin thought that the best tracks on The Amalgamut "sweep ringing, acoustic-guitar verses into anthemic power-chord choruses", while concluding that "the only tradition Filter answers to is that of consummate rock professionalism.
"[48] In a negative review, Andrew Shaffer of The Huffington Post criticized the album for being "a mess mirroring Patrick's own downward spiral into drug and alcohol abuse.
"[50] Rolling Stone critic Barry Walters criticized the heavier tracks of The Amalgamut for weighing the record down; nevertheless, Walters praised the "standout" track "The Only Way (Is the Wrong Way)", further stating: "If Filter can repeatedly attain such pure beauty, why can't they elsewhere filter out their own sludge?