Scott Weiland has a unique, inside view of Jim Morrison's darkest days. Weiland's a smack addict, Morrison was an alcoholic. Both diseases have a way of casting deep, gray shadows over peoples' souls, as distinctive to the ear as to the eye. On "Atlanta," the closing track on Stone Temple Pilot's latest, No. 4, Weiland croons in a deep, hollow and affected voice that is all Morrison, until he jumps a register on the second verse, something Jim could never do, at least not for very long. Listening to "Atlanta" makes you want to slap on some headphones and pull out your copy of LA Woman.

The rest of No. 4, however, is business as usual, STP style. The opening grinder, "Down," is the same stomping rock-funk grind that made Core so painfully infectious. The recipe is simple: heavy dollops of bass and power chords moving at an elephant-zombie pace, somewhere between "When the Levee Breaks" and "Rock 'n' Roll." The Zep comparison is no fluke, not because the band really compares well to them (STP isn't nearly as innovative or experimental), but in its relentless intensity when the band knows where it wants to go.

Underlying everything, of course, is Weiland, his experiences, his vocals. Here's a guy who, justifiably or not, was attacked as an Eddie Vedder wannabe when STP first set sail. He's grown well beyond those early days, into a voice distinctive enough to pick out in a sonic line-up. Lyrically, it's hard not to draw connections with Weiland's smack-riddled experiences. For example, on the skull-pounding "No Way Out," where the lyric is hopeful, sort of: "I'm going under, I'm suffocating/Drowning but I'm holding on," countered at the chorus with "Keep it away now mother fucker, now keep it away." You tell me what he's talking about.